Skip Links

USGS - science for a changing world

U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011-1014

A Preliminary Report to the U.S. Coast Guard, Part 2

Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Sediment from the Northern Gulf of Mexico Shoreline, Texas to Florida

By Robert J. Rosenbauer, Pamela L. Campbell, Angela Lam, Thomas D. Lorenson, Frances D. Hostettler, Burt Thomas, and Florence L. Wong

ABSTRACT

Thumbnail of and link to report PDF (4.5 MB)

Petroleum hydrocarbons were extracted and analyzed from shoreline sediment collected from the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) coastline that could potentially be impacted by Macondo-1 (M-1) well oil. Sediment was collected before M-1 well oil made significant local landfall and analyzed for baseline conditions by a suite of diagnostic petroleum biomarkers. Oil residue in trace quantities was detected in 45 of 69 samples. With the aid of multivariate statistical analysis, three different oil groups, based on biomarker similarity, were identified that were distributed geographically along the nGOM from Texas to Florida. None of the sediment hydrocarbon extracts correlated with the M-1 well oil extract, however, the similarity of tarballs collected at one site (FL-18) with the M-1 well oil suggests that some oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill may have been transported to this site in the Florida Keys, perhaps by a loop current, before that site was sampled.

Also of interest

Open-File Report 2010-1290, Reconnaissance of Macondo-1 Well Oil in Sediment and Tarballs from the Northern Gulf of Mexico Shoreline, Texas to Florida, by Robert J. Rosenbauer, Pamela L. Campbell, Angela Lam, Thomas D. Lorenson, Frances D. Hostettler, Burt Thomas, and Florence L. Wong

  • This report is available only on the Web.

For additional information:
Contact Information, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
U.S. Geological Survey
345 Middlefield Road, MS-999
Menlo Park, CA 94025-3591
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/

This report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF); the latest version of Adobe Reader or similar software is required to view it. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge.


Suggested citation:

Rosenbauer, R.J., Campbell, P.L., Lam, A., Lorenson, T.D., Hostettler, F.D., Thomas, B., and Wong, F.L., 2011, Petroleum hydrocarbons in sediment from the northern Gulf of Mexico shoreline, Texas to Florida: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2011-1014, 22 p.



Contents

Abstract

Introduction

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

References Cited

three appendixes


Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices

Take Pride in America logo USA.gov logo U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
[an error occurred while processing this directive] URL: https://pubsdata.usgs.gov
Page Contact Information: USGS Publications Team
Page Last Modified: Wednesday, 07-Dec-2016 23:32:34 EST