Deepwater Horizon Spill Water and Sediment Chemistry

Three days of oceanographic data were collected aboard the RV GYRE in October 2010 by a multi-agency Subsurface Monitoring Unit. The dataset contains provisional laboratory analysis results for water and sediment samples, including Total Organic Carbon, Volatile Organic Compounds, and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons. This collection was a direct response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill event that began on April 20, 2010.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial distribution of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) in sediment cores to map contamination plumes.
• Correlate Volatile Organic Compound concentrations with physical sediment properties from core samples.
• Model the relationship between Semivolatile Organic Compounds and Total Organic Carbon levels in water samples.
• Use sediment core imagery and physical characteristic data to ground-truth laboratory chemistry results.

Strengths

• Data collected by a consortium of government and corporate agencies as part of a coordinated spill response.
• Includes multiple data types: chemical analysis, physical sediment properties, imagery, and supporting cruise documentation.

Limitations

• Analytical chemistry data are labeled as provisional, indicating potential unverified or preliminary status.
• Temporal coverage is limited to a very short, 3-day sampling window in October 2010.
• Specific row counts, column details, and sample sizes are unknown from the provided metadata.

Provenance

Source

Subsurface Monitoring Unit (SMU), consisting of multiple government and corporate agencies, via NOAA NCEI.

Collection Method

Samples collected at sea using bottles and sediment corers, with subsequent onshore laboratory analysis.

Time Range

2010-10-01 to 2010-10-03

Freshness

null

Geography

Gulf of Mexico