> Causes of Spills
What are the main causes of oil spills?
Spills usually happen due to bad weather (hurricanes, storms, and earthquakes), intentional acts of violence (like war, vandals, or dumping) and human mistakes. The main sources of the spilled oil are usually:
1. Tankers (boats that carry oil from one location to another) crashing, breaking, or running up on land
2. Pipelines breaking or leaking (like the Alaska pipeline which pumps oil continuously)
3. Barges crashing
4. Oil Wells blowing up
5. Above and Below Ground Storage Tanks
6. Trucks carrying oil and getting into an accident
7. Production Facility (a company that takes pure (crude) oil, and changes it into other products [tar, asphalt, etc.])
8. Unknown locations and Mystery Spills (some people dump oil and other chemicals on purpose)
9. Oil Platforms (factories located in the ocean which pump oil from deep in the ocean floor)
10. Natural Seepage (this is when natural oil found in the ground leaks up into the water)
11. Lightering (moving oil from one boat to another), sometimes something breaks, or slips, and oil is lost
12. Government facilities and piers (Navy boats carry a lot of oil, and sometimes they spill some)
Photo of the Amoco Cadiz
