Photo by Gerald Herbert, ap images
The first loud noise appeared in the middle of the sea, and the flames soared into the sky;
And then there was a series of explosions.
The crude oil poured up was ignited in an instant,
A large cloud of "air clouds" suddenly sprung up on the surface of the sea.
摄影：u.s. coast guard, epa
Exactly ten years ago,
It was 10 p.m. on April 20.
The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded,
After the platform sank, a large amount of oil leaked,
Resulted in the worst oil spill in U.S. history;
Ten years later, the harm caused by it is still not eliminated,
endless environmental hazards,
Make it comparable to the oceanic version of "Chernobyl",
It is also one of the world's worst environmental disasters:
Gulf of Mexico crude oil spill
The asterisk indicates the waters of the Gulf of Mexico where the "Deepwater Horizon" exploded and leaked
摄影：joel sartore, nat geo image collection
More than 490 million liters of crude oil were injected into the Gulf of Mexico;
7 seriously injured and at least 11 missing;
millions of marine mammals,
Loss of turtles, birds and fish;
In underwater footage, crude oil erupts from damaged deep-sea wellheads.
Courtesy of: bp via ap
In the full 87 days of the explosion and the leak,
The whole world is powerless,
We can only watch crude oil pour into the ocean.
Photographer Beltria said that for the visible oil leaked by BP Deepwater Horizon, the staff would use controlled combustion to remove it. Photographed in May 2010.
Photo by Daniel Beltra
In May 2010, ships collected spilled oil from oil-absorbing fences.
摄影：tyrone turner, nat geo image collection
In 2010, oil spilled from the Deepwater Horizon covered Orange Beach in Alabama.
Even after a decade,
The nightmare still hasn't gone away.
A dead dolphin performs an autopsy at the Mississippi Marine Mammal Research Institute
Photo by Patrick Semansky, AP
A few months after the oil spill,
About 1,000 dolphins died;
In the heavily polluted Balataria Bay in Louisiana,
The successful pregnancy rate of dolphins is only 20%,
In unpolluted areas,
The figure is 83 per cent.
In 2010, bottlenose dolphins swam across Chandler Sound Bay, Louisiana, a greasy stretch of water.
Photo by Alex Brandon, AP
Ten years later, Cynthia Smith, a veterinarian at the Marine Mammal Foundation of America, found that bottlenose dolphins had increased reproductive failure rates, lung disease rates, heart disease rates, impaired stress responses, and the probability of death.
Interestingly, two studies published in 2018 found that cleaners exposed to oil and the U.S. Coast Guard also experienced symptoms similar to those of dolphins.
Before the oil spill, scientists had studied deep-sea corals in the Gulf of Mexico, such as the bubble gum and bamboo corals in the picture above, which were brightly colored and thriving.
供图：noaa office of ocean exploration and research, gulf of mexico 2014.
Corals grew well before the spill, and after the spill, half of the coral community (the colorful fan-shaped gorgonian) was damaged to some degree.
摄影：carol guzy, the washington post/getty images
The Gulf of Mexico is home to 5 species of sea turtles,
They are all protected by the Endangered Species Act.
In 2010, a dead sea turtle lay in oil in Balataria Bay, Louisiana.
Leatherback turtles and Atlantic hawksbill turtles prefer to roam offshore waters, while red sea turtles, green sea turtles and the particularly endangered Kemp's lily turtles usually roam in their nearshore habitats. A 2017 study estimated that at least 402,000 sea turtles were exposed to oil during the oil spill — 51 percent of which were the smallest and most endangered Kemp's turtles.
On a beach in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, a Kemp's turtle nests. The recovery of this critically endangered species has been frustrated by the oil spill.
摄影：sandesh kadur, nature picture library
Birds are most affected,
The Gulf of Mexico became a "black hell" for birds.
After the oil spill, a pelican contaminated with crude oil was rescued on Queen Beth Island, Louisiana.
Ornithologist Erik Johnson said: "The number of birds affected is estimated to be between 100,000 and 1 million. In fact, we never know the exact numbers. ”
This statistic includes common diving birds, northern, double-crested cormorants, royal terns, Wilson plovers, black terns and beach finches. As many as 32 percent of laughing gulls and as many as a quarter of brown pelicans were also affected.
Near East Grand Trey Island, Louisiana, on June 4, 2010, a brown pelican struggles with crude oil.
Photo by Win Mcnamee, Getty Images
In this man-made disaster,
The only thing that benefits is some fish,
They're proliferating in numbers.
In particular, the number of herring in the bay is twice as large as in the past,
Because a lot of fish-eating seabirds have disappeared.
After an oil spill, the crude oil will sink after mixing with phytoplankton and clay
Photo by Christopher Berkey, EPA
Phytoplankton mixed with petroleum
Photo by Arne Diercks
A recent study examined 2,500 different fish in the Gulf of Mexico and found that all 91 species of fish sampled showed signs of contact with oil, meaning the oil spills were widespread and continuing. In contaminated areas, including the endangered Gulf Sturgeon, the reproductive capacity of the spotted moray trout and red drumfish has declined.
A dead totoaba floats in oily water on Grand Island, Louisiana
What does the future hold?
In July 2010, three months after the spill began, crude oil still covered the gulf.
Photo by Dave Martin
It may take decades to figure out what effect oil will have on the next generation of cetaceans, corals, turtles, birds, fish and more.
Many marine scientists have also devoted their entire careers to the moment of the explosion .
The Gulf of Mexico is home to 21 species of marine mammals, most of which are rare, so scientists can only "listen" to study — based on the sounds made by marine animals, which species are still active and which are declining after years of oil spills.
The most important exhibit in the incident is the blowout valve recovered from the BP macondo well
Photo by Gerald Herbert, associated press
After the 2010 incident, Kaitlin Frasier, who was still a doctoral student, followed her mentor's instructions to focus on the oil spill, and she began to "listen" to the vast seabed of the Gulf of Mexico, and one species that is currently being heard less and less is the tropical spotted original dolphin.
It's been a full decade since the oil spill,
This time however for the restoration of the ecology
It still doesn't seem like enough.
At the same time,
Frasier is still buried in front of his desk,
Listen to the chirping of gray dolphins,
Listen to the long, whispered chants of sperm whales.
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