- A heavy oil spill can also blanket estuaries and shoreline ecosystems, such as salt marshes and tidal pools, preventing gas exchange and blocking light.
- While most spillage is small, and can be contained, oil spill disasters have impacted various countries and oceans for decades.
- But when oil accidentally spills into the ocean, it can cause big problems. Oil spills can harm sea creatures, ruin a day at the beach, and make seafood unsafe to...
- An oil spill is a form of marine pollution that occurs when any type of oil spills into an open body of water. The oil floats on the water surface as a discrete mass.
- Generally, there are two kinds of oil spills: Oil spill in water and oil spill in soil. The biggest different between them is the degree of spread.
- One of the causes of oil spills is natural disasters. For instance, a raging storm may sink an oil tanker, spill its contents, and cause pollution.
- For this reason, oil spill is regarded as a form of pollution as the term is mostly applied to define spillage of oil in marine systems.
- Oil spills can also affect human health. These effects can depend on what kind of oil was spilled and where (on land, in a river, or in the ocean).
- As a cause of oil spill, explosions may occur as a result of unfavorable pressure dynamics and other conditions, in drilling rigs, storage vessels, or transport pipelines.
- Oil Spill Definition. In simpler terms, a spill, according to the Oxford Learner Dictionary, is when a liquid comes or falls out of a container.