Oil Spill Lab

Problem: The Oil Spill

Guiding Question: Did the oil spill affect the way waves travel on to the beach?

Hypotheses: The more force that is added to the waves/oil the farther it will travel on to the beach.

Materials

Water 2(water2:1oil)

• Olive oil
• Sand
• Clay
• Plastic Bucket

Procedure

1. Get a tub about 8 centimeters deep, fill the tub with base of clay and sand over the top creating a beach like presence?
2. Fill the tub with two cups water and one cups oil.
3. For the testing use four fingers to propel the oil/water, observe data record in notebook.
4. Then try more force by adding 8 fingers, observe data and record in notebook.
5. Add even more force with both hands, consistently move hands back and forth to create waves that continuously go on to the shore.

Testing

Slightly shifting the Bucket Back in Fourth:

I noticed that the water felt a lot thicker than just regular water, when just amount of force was added to the oil/water the waves did not travel very fast. When I was shifting the water the water and oil started mixing in with the sand, which creates a musty liquid color.

More Vigorously:

The water/oil glistened right at level one. When the wave contracted it left a very thick area where the oil was. When I sped up the one handed process I could see that the water was now at the level between 1 and 2. The base of the beach was completely covered in oil, and it looked like it was seeping into the sand.

Very Vigorously:

The more force added left a very large amount to oil between the 2 and 3 level of beach. As I ran my hand against the surface of the sand I picked up so much grease and oil is was crazy! And even10 minutes later the furthest distance away from the water is also streaked with grease.  When I first started this lab the clay that I used was rock hard. When I was poking the sand with a long tooth pick I found that it went all the way through, this means that the oil that seeped through caused the rock heard clay to soften.

Conclusion

When relating this lab back to the oil spill it is quite amazing how much oil sticks to the sand when there is a lot of force. In the Gulf of Mexico about 210,000 gallons of oil was spilled a day, and the only thing that was preventing it going to the shore were these surface barriers. In calm waters this is a great way for the spilled oil to stay in one area, but strong water the barriers are no use. When the water/oil goes over the barrier it is in free range to go anywhere it wants to... and usually that is towards the shore. My experiment showed that when the water/oil is calmly goes on to the shore, it leaves a lot of oil on the sand. My experiment was only with olive oil which didn’t leave any visual mark, although it left a very greasy shore. When I rubbed my finger along the sand I could feel the oil collecting on my finger. Remember that was only with olive oil, imagine with real fossil fuel. So much damage it has done to the environment, so many animals and plants it has left life less because of an oil spill. To conclude my experiment, I found that even though the water was a lot denser, the more vigorously I shook the bucket the more waves it created, leaving the sand and clay extremely greasy.

Further Inquiry

    If I were to do this experiment again I would probably create a barrier and see how much of the water goes over the barrier and on to the shore. I think that this I think that this would be a very interesting experiment because it would show if the barriers worked or not. If they did then great, if they didn’t... looks like we have to do some brain-storming! Next time I would also like to try a different type of oil, maybe the real fossil fuel! I think that would be extremely interesting to find out what the wave would look like then. It is amazing that one mistake in the water, it can disturb not only the environment but it also hurt the economy with the amount of money they are spending on cleaning up the oil spill. I would also really like to research some machines that clean up the oil spill, I wonder if they actually work. If they do, maybe they can clean up other rivers that are dirty-like the Nile. When I was living in Egypt, we weren’t allowed to touch the water because you could get this disease because it was so dirty. Maybe they could use some of the machines that they used to clean up the oil to help clean up the Nile.

Oil Spill on Prezi