No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
The Behaviour and Fate of Arctic Oil Spills
Abstract
A brief overview is provided, based on several recent reports, of the dominant factors and processes which influence the behaviour and physical fate of spilled crude oil in the remote harsh Arctic offshore regions. These factors and processes include physical-chemical properties, evaporation, dispersion, dissolution, emulsification, physical movement and interaction with ice. Rates of the individual dominant processes for a typical Beaufort oil in the Beaufort Sea under different physical environments are approximated and applied to various spill scenarios. Research needs in this field are summarized.
... Fate and transport of spilled oil is a complex process and the presence of ice makes it more complicated. It is governed by spreading, evaporation, emulsification, dispersion, advection, photo-oxidation, biodegradation, dissolution, encapsulation and sedimentation, which take place simultaneously after an oil spill (Bobra and Fingas, 1986;Spaulding, 1988;Sebastiao and Guedes, 1995;Reed et al. 1999;Yang et al., 2015). ...
... The fate and transport of oil in ice-covered waters is not totally different from that in open water. The main difference is the presence of ice (Bobra and Fingas, 1986;Brandvik et al., 2006). Fig. 3 illustrates the processes that take place after an oil spill. ...
... Fig. 4 illustrates when the weathering and transport processes start and end. Fig. 5 shows the complexity involved in ice-covered waters (Bobra and Fingas, 1986;Dickins, 2011). Apart from the processes that are common to those in open water, more complexity is observed when oil moves into leads, spills in snow, spills on and under different ice types, and when oil is engulfed in ice (Bobra and Fingas, 1986;Brandvik et al., 2006). ...
... The fate and behavior of oil in ice covered waters is governed by a number of important processes, several of which are illustrated in Figure 1 (after Bobra and Fingas, 1986) and discussed below. (Bobra and Fingas, 1986) Spreading. ...
... The fate and behavior of oil in ice covered waters is governed by a number of important processes, several of which are illustrated in Figure 1 (after Bobra and Fingas, 1986) and discussed below. (Bobra and Fingas, 1986) Spreading. In Arctic waters, oil spills tend to spread less and remain slightly thicker than in temperate waters (such as the Gulf of Mexico) partly because oil is more viscous in cooler waters. ...
Ice conditions, in dynamic stages of development and degradation, are present for over 280 days out of every calendar year in the Beaufort Sea adjacent to the operating oilfields on the Alaskan North Slope. Additionally, wind driven ice invasions during the open water season, July through September typically, may also occur for short periods throughout the season. This presence combined with extreme arctic conditions routinely presents a challenge to mounting a safe and effective oil spill response action. In order to overcome this challenge responders must develop response action plans not only with an understanding of the physical environment but also with a basic understanding of the effect this environment will have on the fate and behavior of the spilled oil. Arctic spill response strategies, worldwide, have been developed through years of experience with both offshore and onshore drilling and production operations in all types of sea and ice conditions. North Slope response action plans are based on this experience, intense field training, and ground truthing of related research and development projects.
... At the present time, the processes of the oil/ice interaction are quite understandable (see, e.g., [2,8]). However, in the modeling and prediction of these pro cesses, it is necessary to use various assumptions and parameterizations [16]. ...
... Usually, it is assumed that, at an ice concentration of more than 50%, the oil will be transported with the drifting ice (see, e.g., [2,20]). However, the observa tions of a real spill show that the oil velocity may be more than ice drift velocity [22]. ...
A brief description of the GULFOOS operative forecasting oceanographic system of the Gulf of Finland and the OilMARS operative forecasting oil spill model is presented. Special attention is focused on oil spill simulation in ice conditions. All the assumptions and parameterizations used are described. Modeling results of training simulations for the ice conditions of January 2011 are presented.
... This suggests that the harmful effects of spills on marine ecosystems may persist over this period. In addition, the long-term oil film covering the Arctic ice will enhance the ice's heat absorption capacity and accelerate the ice's melting (Bobra and Fingas, 1986;Dickins, 2011), which will potentially impact the global sea level and long-term climate changes. ...
Global warming has led to rapid warming in the Arctic region and continuous melting of ice and snow, and the seaworthiness of the Arctic shipping routes is increasing significantly. This has also aroused widespread concern from the international community regarding the environmental impact of Arctic shipping activities. Thus, this paper reviews 75 articles to evaluate the different impacts of Arctic shipping on the region’s environment. The research results show that the impact of current Arctic shipping activities is extensive, and it can identify three major impacts: impact on water bodies, impact of air emissions and impact on animal survival. In this context, to mitigate the growing negative impact of shipping activities on the fragile Arctic environment, it is essential to adopt technical and operational solutions for ships and formulate new or stricter standards and rules for Arctic shipping activities. At the same time, existing research has gaps in four areas: Arctic environmental and ecological baseline surveys, quantitative research on the direct and synergistic environmental impacts from Arctic shipping, implications of Arctic shipping activities on aboriginal health, and the Arctic shipping gas emission model based on artificial intelligence technology. We recommend enriching relevant research to enhance the ability to assess the impacts of Arctic shipping routes.
... Oil spill pollution has a great impact on Marine environment, ecology, resources, economy and human production and life [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. When spilled oil came into the Marine environment, due to the influence of wind, wave, current, illumination, temperature, the microbial activities and so on, the important weathering processes such as evaporation [8,9], dissolution [10,11], biodegradation [12,13], photooxidation [14,15], dispersion [16], emulsification [17], hydrolysis [18], adsorption on suspended particles in water [19], and precipitation [20] occur in succession. At the same time of weathering, the chemical composition and physical properties of the spilled oil are quite different from those of the original oil. ...
Fingerprinting technique is a universal method for tracing oil spill. It is usually achieved by means of diagnostic ratios (DRs) of biomarkers. In the process of severely weathering, the important components usually change greatly and the relevant diagnostic ratios may also change. Therefore, it is more difficult to trace severely weathered oil to its source. On November 22, 2013, the huge explosion of Sinopec pipeline occurred in Qingdao, China. The beaches near the explosion site were contaminated and damaged by oil spills. After the explosion, an actual weathering experiment was carried out on an oil-polluted beach. The original and weathered spilled oil samples have been collected from this site. Synchronized with actual coastal weathering, a 360-day Lab simulated weathering experiment was carried out using the sampled original oil spill samples. According to data analysis techniques including similarity, t-test method and repeatability limit analysis, 27 new diagnostic ratios of dibenzothiophenes and fluorenes in the weathered oil samples were selected and verified. 6 of them maintained good stability during both of the simulated and actual weathering process. It is recommended that these stable DRs be used for tracing the source of severely weathered oil spills to promote the efficiency and accuracy.
... 227 The fate and behavior of oil accidentally released in the Arctic will depend on the circumstances of the release and prevailing ice conditions at the time. 34 Oil released onto the sea surface may encounter open water, partial ice cover or total ice coverage depending on the season and location. Oil deposited onto near total ice coverage would accumulate on top of the ice and snow. ...
Future oil exploration and marine navigation may well extend into the Arctic Ocean, and government agencies and responders need to plan for accidental oil spills. We argue that dispersants should play an important role in these plans, since they have substantial logistical benefits, work effectively under Arctic conditions, and stimulate the rapid biodegradation of spilled oil. They also minimize the risk of surface slicks to birds and mammals, the stranding of oil on fragile shorelines and minimize the need for large work crews to be exposed to Arctic conditions.
... New applications of chaos theory, known as Lagrangian Coherent Structures, are being applied to drift problems such as oil spills. These new analyses of currents and winds Bobra and Fingas (1986) and Wilkinson et al. (2013)). The main environmental factors influencing (top) 'warm' open-water weathering processes (besides oil composition) include amount of wind and wave energy; (middle) Summer sea ice weathering processes include amount of open water, wind-wave conditions, oil migration processes, wind herding in leads and the movement of ice; (bottom) Winter sea ice weathering processes include ice type, amount of daylight, drift of ice, encapsulation of oil, in new ice types as well as at the bottom of older ice * Not shown in this figure is a further scenario, specific to fast ice, whereby heat and/or gas contained within the oil, from rising blowout plume, inhibits ice formation and keeps an area of open-water ice free from late summer, and throughout the following winter (Lewis 1976) Ambio show that environmental fields can be analysed to determine areas spills are blocked from reaching (Allshouse et al. 2017) or to predict locations of future rapid changes in an oil spill earlier than traditional oil spill models show any changes (Olascoaga and Haller 2012). ...
Renewed political and commercial interest in the resources of the Arctic, the reduction in the extent and thickness of sea ice, and the recent failings that led to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, have prompted industry and its regulatory agencies, governments, local communities and NGOs to look at all aspects of Arctic oil spill countermeasures with fresh eyes. This paper provides an overview of present oil spill response capabilities and technologies for ice-covered waters, as well as under potential future conditions driven by a changing climate. Though not an exhaustive review, we provide the key research results for oil spill response from knowledge accumulated over many decades, including significant review papers that have been prepared as well as results from recent laboratory tests, field programmes and modelling work. The three main areas covered by the review are as follows: oil weathering and modelling; oil detection and monitoring; and oil spill response techniques.
... Schematic illustration of the behavior of oil in ice-covered water. Source: AMAP (2007; after Bobra and Fingas, 1986 2004) demonstrated that Arctic peoples are susceptible to changing environmental conditions, and are already having to adapt. Among locally relevant climate related changes are projected increases in temperature and precipitation, reductions in sea-ice extent, and increases in the frequency and magnitude of hazardous conditions, including those associated with permafrost thaw, sea-ice stability, and increasing exposure to storms along the Arctic coast (Couture et al., 2002;Johannessen et al., 2004;Kattsov and Källén, 2005;Christensen et al., 2007;Barber et al., 2008b;Sou and Flato, 2009;Zhou et al., 2009). ...
... The work to date has identified a number of processes and parameters that Downloaded by [200.24.241.186] Bobra and Fingas, 1986). ...
This paper describes methodologies developed for predicting the drift and spread of oil spills in ice‐infested waters. Particular emphasis is placed on oil spills in medium and high ice concentrations. For ice concentrations greater than about 30%, the oil is found to drift with the ice. Empirical methods are used to determine the spread of oil in ice of different concentrations. The study showed that the equilibrium oil thickness in slush or brash (broken) ice is nearly 4 times that on cold water, which is itself very different from that on warm water. Comparisons with limited available data show good agreement.
... Schematic illustration of the behavior of oil in ice-covered water. Source: AMAP (2007; after Bobra and Fingas, 1986 2004) demonstrated that Arctic peoples are susceptible to changing environmental conditions, and are already having to adapt. Among locally relevant climate related changes are projected increases in temperature and precipitation, reductions in sea-ice extent, and increases in the frequency and magnitude of hazardous conditions, including those associated with permafrost thaw, sea-ice stability, and increasing exposure to storms along the Arctic coast (Couture et al., 2002;Johannessen et al., 2004;Kattsov and Källén, 2005;Christensen et al., 2007;Barber et al., 2008b;Sou and Flato, 2009;Zhou et al., 2009). ...
Key Findings
• The decline in Arctic summer sea-ice extent has accelerated over the past ten years. The retreat is faster than previously predicted by IPCC models and summer ice-free conditions are likely over most of the Arctic basin by mid-century or earlier.
• Newly developed estimates of sea-ice age, basin-scale sea-ice thickness, and sea-ice volume indicate thinning of the ice cover and loss of old ice types.
• Recent research has better quantified some interactions between the sea ice, ocean, and atmosphere, particularly during the extreme summer ice loss of 2007.
• Predictions of seasonal sea-ice extent are highly variable on a regional basis. Environmental conditions and bathymetry are also highly variable on a regional basis. In combination, these factors will strongly affect the impacts of climate warming on Arctic biological systems.
• The extinction of some Arctic endemic species is likely if current sea-ice trends continue. These losses will represent biodiversity losses of global significance, and reverse millions of years of evolutionary change (since the beginning of the Pleistocene). Northward range expansions for some temperate species and potentially greater overall productivity will enhance foraging opportunities for some animals within High Arctic areas, at a cost to Arctic endemic populations.
• The responses of Arctic endemic cetaceans to changing sea-ice conditions will be influenced by food availability, competition from non-endemic migrant cetaceans and, in some regions, the potential for increased predation from killer whales.
• Indigenous and some local peoples have been challenged by changes in sea ice and those challenges will continue into the future.
• Reduced seasonal sea-ice presence is already leading to greater shoreline exposure to open water and storm waves. These changes impose greater wave and erosion hazards for shoreline, infrastructure, waterfront structures, and cultural heritage sites in some places.
• Loss of sea ice is increasing interest in access and resource rights, such as shipping, resource extraction, military operations, and tourism, which will have impacts across a wide-range of issues.
• Hazards related to sea-ice movement (ride-up and pile- up) onshore are known to have caused fatalities and significant infrastructure damage in the past.
• There are clear limits to any Arctic governance regime (regulatory or soft-law). The drivers of sea-ice change and its consequences occur largely outside the region and fall beyond the jurisdiction of any one Arctic state, and responding to sea-ice change creates profound governance challenges
The Canadian Arctic is a large and diverse geographic area that encompasses a wide variety of environmental conditions and ecosystems. Over recent decades, marine transportation has increased across the Arctic and, as a result, so has the likelihood of an oil spill. The study of oil spills in the Arctic presents unique challenges compared to temperate marine environments, due to remoteness, cold temperatures and the presence of snow and ice throughout much of the year. This review summarizes and discusses the fate of oil in the Canadian Arctic. A brief introduction to the Canadian Arctic and sources of potential petroleum spills is provided, followed by discussions of the behaviour of oil in ice and freezing temperatures, oil-sediment interactions, and the weathering and natural remediation of oil under Arctic conditions. A summary of perspectives concludes the review, with emphasis on possible areas of future work to address research gaps.
Marine oil spills often cause long-term great harm to the polluted environment. The absence of many important components makes it more difficult to identify the source of oil spill. Traceability identification of seriously weathered oil spill has always been a difficult point due to influence of complicated weathering process. Therefore, it is particularly important to screen and verify the new indexes to solve the problem of identification of severe weathering oil spill. As a kind of common biomarker, bicyclic sesquiterpanes is a research hotspot in the field of identification for spilled oils. The stability and applicability of bicyclic sesquiterpanes in oil spills in different time has been assessed by comparing laboratory simulation weathering experiment and beach weathering experiment samples. By using the commonly used oil spill identification method including t-test, similarity method and repeatability limit method，12 new diagnostic ratios (DRs) of bicyclic sesquiterpanes were screened and appraised. These diagnostic ratios are applicable to the identification of unweathered crude oil samples coming from different regions. In both severe weathering processes, only the ratio total pentamethyldecahydronaphthalene to total pentamethyldecahydronaphthalene and hexamethyldecahydronaphthalene mained relatively stable. This has a good indication for the identification of the source of severe weathering oil spill. If it has been verified by a variety of oil products, it can be recommended as the identification index of severe weathering oil spill.
It was shown that a composition of the oil product has a significant influence on the formation of the oil film and its distribution in ice conditions. The area of the spill of diesel fuel and crude oil is different at different times after the emergency release; an average wind penetration of the spill under the ice would not be significant; and the spreading rate of the spill occurs two to three times slower than in warm seas. The data on the content of hydrocarbons (HCs) are presented and compared to the contents of organic carbon, lipids, and particulate matter in the snow-ice cover of the coastal areas of Rugozerskaya Bay at the periphery of Kandalaksha Bay, the Severnaya Dvina River mouth in the aquatic area of Arkhangelsk (Lakes near Arkhangelsk, Dvina Bay), and Onega River mouth. The accumulation of HCs in the snow depends on the degree of atmosphere contamination, the conditions of the ice formation, and the intensity of the biogeochemical processes at the ice-water interface.
This paper presents data on the content of hydrocarbons (HCs) in the snow-ice cover of the coastal regions of the Dvina and Kandalaksha gulfs, White Sea, in 2008-2012 in comparison with the content of organic carbon, lipids, and the suspension. The accumulation of HCs in the snow-ice cover depends on the degree of pollution of the atmosphere, formation conditions of ice, and intensity of biogeochemical processes at the ice-water boundary. Thus, the highest concentrations in the water basin of Arkhangelsk are identified in snow and in the upper part of the ice. The peculiarities of formation of the snow-ice cover in Rugozero Bay of the Kandalaksha Gulf leads to the concentration of HCs in different snow and ice layers. The decreased HC content in the snow-ice cover of the White Sea, in comparison with previous studies, is caused by recession of industrial production in recent years.
The data on the content of hydrocarbons (HC) are presented and compared to the contents of organic carbon, lipids, and particulate matter in the snow-ice cover of the coastal areas of Dvina and Kandalaksha bays of the White Sea (2008–2012). The accumulation of HC in the snow-ice cover depends on the degree of atmosphere contamination, the conditions of the ice formation, and the intensity of the biogeochemical processes at the ice-water interface. Because of this, the aquatic area of Arkhangelsk is characterized by the highest HC concentrations in the snow and in the upper layer of ice. The peculiarities of the formation of the snow-ice cover in Rugozero bight of Kandalaksha Bay cause the concentrating of HC in different layers of ice. The decrease of the concentration of HC in the show-ice cover of the White Sea compared to earlier studies resulted from the recession of industrial activities during the recent years.
This chapter describes the state of knowledge regarding the most applicable countermeasures to deal with oil on, in or among ice. Countermeasures are discussed in the context of seasonal variations in ice conditions and observations of oil fate and behaviour in a variety of different situations. The behaviour of oil spilled in ice covered waters is governed largely by the ice concentration in the case of broken ice, and the processes of encapsulation and subsequent migration in the case of solid (fast) (ice). Each season presents different drawbacks and advantages for spill response. During freeze-up and break-up, drifting ice and limited site access tend to restrict the possible response options and significantly reduce recovery effectiveness. Mid-winter, although associated with long periods of darkness and cold temperatures, provides a stable ice cover that not only naturally contains the oil nearshore within a relatively small area but also provides a safe working platform for oil recovery and transport. For the case of spills under or on fast ice, there are a range of effective counter- measures options which can result in very high recovery effectiveness. Countermeasures to deal with spills in moving pack ice are much more limited and likely to result in highly variable recovery values depending on a variety of natural conditions and logistics constraints.
A state-of-the-art review of numerical oil spill trajectory and fate modeling is presented to include advection, spreading, evaporation, dissolution, dispersion, emulsification, biodegradation and sedimentation. This paper represents an update of earlier reviews by Stolzenbach et aL (1977), Huang & Monastero (1982), and Huang (1983) and hence concentrates on recent advances. Particular attention isfocused on the dispersion of oil from the sea surface and its influence on spreading, the role of environmental data (currents, wind, temperature, ice conditions) used as input to the model, and the interaction of oil with a variety of shoreline types. Consideration is also given to oil behavior in Arctic environments where oil-ice interactions are important. Brief discussions of the linking of oil spill models with other models to assess environmental impact and the use of oil spill models as the core of an expert system are presented. The review concludes with a list of research needed to advance our ability to model the trajectory andfate of oil and trends in oil spill model development.
This paper reports data on the concentrations of organic compounds (organic carbon, Corg; lipids; aliphatic hydrocarbons, AHCs; and polycyclic 0aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs) in snow, ice, and subice waters from
the mouth of the Severnaya Dvina River (2005–2007) and Kandalaksha Gulf (Chupa Bay, 2004) at the end of winter. It was established
that organic compounds are accumulated in the snow and upper ice layer near the town of Archangelsk. The distribution of molecular
markers indicates that pollution was mainly caused by local fallouts. In Chupa Bay, organic compounds are concentrated in
the lower ice layers, which is typical of the Arctic snow-ice cover. The high contents of organic compounds in the snow-ice
cover of the White Sea are caused by the pollution of its air and water during the winter season.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.