Page 5 - My FlipBook

The explosion at Union
Oil Platform A caused
millions of gallons of
oil to spill out into the
Santa Barbara Channel
off the coast of Santa
Barbara, California.

Slogging through thick mud and oil that covered the platform,
the crew worked to screw down a valve that would allow them to seal
the well. But the extreme pressure—more than 1,000 pounds per
square inch (70 kg per sq. cm)—doomed their efforts. An explosion
was imminent. All unnecessary crew members quickly evacuated
the platform.
A handful of workers remained to try to avert disaster. They
dropped the drill pipe back into the well and slammed enormous steel
blowout preventers on top. Thirteen minutes after the initial burst from
the pipe, workers capped the well. That solved the immediate problem
of oil gushing onto the platform, but pressure building below the
seabed had nowhere to go. Minutes later, the shaft blew out. The force
of the underground explosion forced pressurized oil and gas into the
adjacent rocks. Cracks in the seafloor appeared in five places. Minutes
after the blowout preventers had been locked down, oil and gas began
to spew into the ocean.

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