First of all, I can't imagine why it took so long to develop a solution which appears to be so absolutely effective. Not knowing the details of how a blowout preventer is designed, most could only guess in the dark about how a potential solution would develop, not knowing that pieces of it at the outlet were removable. Just have a hard time understanding why so much time and resources were wasted and why so much oil flowed out while they used such ineffective ideas when such brilliance was there all along. Surely, there are plenty of factors that I would have no idea about.

 

I have read about how the Ixtoc slick, slightly bigger?, the gulf recovered from in only 2 or 3 years. This happened primarily because it happened in only 170 ft. of warm water and because cat.4 Hurricane Frederick gave it a good stir. With the dispersants used on this occasion, most of the oil sank out of view and off the beaches, but also into much colder water, where dissolution will happen much slower. The 10%? of oil still left in Prince William Sound is still there because the water is so much colder. Since most of the oil is so deep, there is not a lot that the Whale and co. can do about it. The water tested around the area is highly deoxygenated because of all the methane that has escaped out?

 

Part of me thinks that a hurricane (not necessarily big) is the best way for a quick recovery, to reoxygenate the water and dissipate it into warmer water where it can dissolve further. On the other hand, this would probably send a portion of oil into the Gulf Stream and up the east coast. In case you've never experienced it, the likelihood of oil-stained beaches in North Carolina is pretty slim, if you ask me. A few isolated tarballs here and there never hurt anyone, though I doubt anything that big would stay together that long. I think the most important thing is to stir things up enough to get things moving and get some oxygen back in the water. With this new cap finished, a hurricane is not a problem. I guess we are lucky in that respect.

Looks like a storm towards the west Florida peninsula would be the best possible outcome, as this would push all of the oil out to sea and not onto shore.

 

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/hurricane-alex-oil-slick-movement_2010-07-21

 

Here are some simulations of how the oil would move using a handful of major hurricanes, and the movement caused by the recent hurricane alex.

 

http://www.weather.com/outlook/videos/what-hurricanes-may-do-to-the-oil-spill-17794#17791