The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was the largest in US history, covering more than 1,000 km of shorelines and causing losses that exceeded $50 billion. While oil transformation processes are understood at the laboratory scale, the extent of the Deepwater Horizon spill made it challenging to integrate these processes in the field. This review tracks the Deepwater Horizon oil during its journey from the Mississippi Canyon block 252 (MC252) wellhead, first discussing the formation of the oil and gas plume and the ensuing oil droplet size distribution, then focusing on the behavior of the oil on the water surface with and without waves. It then reports on massive drifter experiments in the Gulf of Mexico and the impact of the Mississippi River on the oil transport. Finally, it concludes by addressing the formation of oil–particle aggregates. Although physical processes lend themselves to numerical modeling, we attempted to elucidate them without using advanced modeling, as our goal is to enhance communication among scientists, engineers, and other entities interested in oil spills.

中文翻译：

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深水地平线井喷后的石油运输


2010年墨西哥湾深水地平线漏油事件是美国历史上规模最大的漏油事件，覆盖海岸线1000多公里，造成的损失超过500亿美元。虽然石油转化过程在实验室规模上已被了解，但深水地平线泄漏事件的严重程度使得将这些过程整合到现场具有挑战性。本综述跟踪了深水地平线石油从密西西比峡谷 252 号区块 (MC252) 井口出发的过程，首先讨论了石油和天然气羽流的形成以及随之而来的油滴尺寸分布，然后重点关注了石油在水面上的行为有波浪和无波浪的表面。然后报告了墨西哥湾的大规模漂流实验以及密西西比河对石油运输的影响。最后，它通过解决油颗粒聚集体的形成来得出结论。尽管物理过程适合数值建模，但我们试图在不使用高级建模的情况下阐明它们，因为我们的目标是加强科学家、工程师和其他对石油泄漏感兴趣的实体之间的沟通。