Dumb question: If they have hydraulic shears that can cut the pipe at a mile deep, why couldn't they have made a hydraulic crimper that could have crimped it at a mile deep? It seems like it would have fixed it now.
It seems like the problem is BP is attempting to capture the oil. They are going to great lengths to save the oil and save the well itself. The reasons for this are obvious. Surely one could just "blast" (i.e. bomb) the whole thing which would cause the earth to cover itself? This would render the well useless, of course. All that precious oil couldn't be harvested. I'm clearly guessing. I have not read every page of this thread. Sorry. Carry on...
I do think that was a motivation early on, but made several attempts at solutions that would have rendered the well useless. BP will still have the lease when this is all over. They'll just have to drill another well.
I’m no engineer, but I would guess that crimping it would just build pressure on a weaker part of the pipe and cause another eruption?
Yah I should have specified, there will almost certainly be oil coming out until August when the relief well is hoped to be ready. However, the video I posted shows the next step in deal with the situation. BP plants to make two cuts on a riser that once stuck straight up, but now is bent down past the BOP. So they will cut the first big chunk to keep the BOP and other things safe (btw the cutter for this is the size of a car) then they will cut the rest of the riser off with a diamond embedded saw, but it has to go through like an inch of steal and a huge drill bit. Then they will place a cap on top of it so syphon up as much of the oil it can and send it to the surface.
I believe they've stopped trying to "cap" it now because their afraid the high pressure will cause leaks to spring up in other places.
From boston.com's The Big Picture: Spoilered because they are, well... big pictures. Also, they are kind of upsetting to me: Spoiler Spoiler More unpleasant photos at the source linked above.
What's worse is the video of those animals from those pictures: http://landing.newsinc.com/chron/video.html?VID=84121
Oh Noes! Poor little animals. I wonder how many animals died when they bulldozed to build your neighborhood.
You know, I try hard to give you the benefit of the doubt, but your idiocy is really hard to ignore sometimes.
SG, your comment is a little over the top. The ruination of the marshes and estuaries (and the resulting death of wildlife, fish and game) along the Gulf Coast is unforgivable. Obama is more clueless in dealing with this disaster than Bush was with Katrina -- and that was incredibly bad. I'm not even sure than Obama is concerned about the spill other than how to make political capital out of it.
