Sunken oil tanker shows four gigantic oil spills on sea

After the disaster with the Iranian oil tanker, China has the oil spill in the map. But less than 100 square kilometers of the sea is contaminated by light oil: 15 000 football fields.

The Sanchi, a olieschip from Iran, came last week in a collision with another ship 260 kilometers from Shanghai. The ship sank Sunday in the final road after more than a week to burn at sea. Of the 32 crew members, it is assumed that they are all dead.

Now comes the damage to the environment slowly in the image. According to China, there are at least 4 major oil spill that is about 100 square kilometres of space. That are about 15 000 football fields. On the first satellite images were the only 2 spots to see.

Extra alarming is that the condensed oil went up (‘condensate’), a very light oil that look more like water than like thick black ointment. Condensate is more explosive than regular oil: it is colourless and floats not on the water. One advantage is that some of the oil already burned out. But the big disadvantage is that this giant oil spill is also much faster will ‘disappear’ under the surface of the water. According to the BBC, will the leak lead to a toxic onderwaterlaag which is very difficult to detect.

The Chinese ministry of transport is now onderwaterrobotten send out to the region of the shipwreck to explore.