On the evening of July 3rd, 2021, if you happened to catch the words “Cthulhu”, “Sauron’s Eye” and “A Portal to Hell” trending worldwide on Twitter, it is simply not because Godzilla decided to make an appearance but something more disturbing that would shake the internet.
At breaking dawn, early hours on Friday, July 3rd 2021, approximately around 5:15am, a massive fire broke out in the southern waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Yes you heard right……A fire in the ocean?!?!
Source: https://www.juancole.com/2021/07/mexico-foretells-burning.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
The blaze was noticed directly on the surface of the water, west of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and at least 500 feet away from the oil company responsible for this outburst. Mexico’s state-owned oil company Petróleos Mexicanos, typically known as Pemex is considered one of the largest oil companies in Latin America and thus the most important company in Mexico. The company is said to have a long history of exploring and extracting oil which can result in over 2.5 million barrels of oil per day and more than 6 million cubic feet of natural gas.
According to a statement published by Pemex, this eruption of fire was caused by a gas leak in a 12-inch submarine pipeline in close proximity to the Ku-Maloob-Zaap oil field and reports suggest that with the aid of several vessels employing fire-fighters, the fire took five hours to subside. By 10:45am on that Friday morning, it was reported that Pemex had extinguished the volcano-like flames with water and Reuters noted that nitrogen was also used.
Source: https://youtu.be/ittFWdyZfmw
So the question still remains, how can the ocean actually catch on fire?
According to CNET in an interview done with Simon George, professor at Australia’s Macquarie University and organic geochemist, “the eruption was caused by methane and probably other wet gas components such as propane, ethane etc. igniting on the ocean’s surface after the leakage,” and that continuous flow of gas kept the fire burning. In one instance the professor noted that this leakage may have consumed any additional hydrocarbons and additionally, Angel Carrizales (Head of Mexico’s oil safety regulator ASEA) took to Twitter reporting that, “the incident did not generate any oil spill.”
Pemex has still to comment on the effects on marine life however many were left to speculate and raise immense awareness via social media, their concerns towards the negative effects of offshore underwater drilling of fossil fuels from the ocean floor. As the incident was met with comedic relief from many individuals the worse case scenario is that these incidents have occurred before and there was increased backlash against Pemex's statement regarding the "oil spill" controversy.
Source: https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/viral-images-of-flames-burning-in-gulf-of-mexico-sparks-memes-3923924.html
Source: https://www.scoopwhoop.com/news/gulf-of-mexico-ring-of-fire-twitter-reactions/
In the past, many companies around the world have had these incidents and the continued practice has indefinitely affected marine life. High gasoline prices and high demand for fuel has pushed companies to promote offshore drilling which, by history, created oil contamination to wildlife ecosystems and thus, oil contamination remains as one of the major contributors to climate change and ocean acidification. Miyoko Sakashita of The Centre for Biological Diversity claimed that these accidents will continue to harm marine life if offshore drilling does not end.
Conclusively, incidents such as the one in the Gulf of Mexico have taught us that anything is possible and that offshore oil drilling is a serious issue that must be paid attention to. As it stands, there are various movements dedicated towards raising awareness of this issue to the public such as the Climate Ad Project 2021 and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Without constant activism and awareness, the issue still remains....can we as a global society find a sustainable route to widely reduce these issues?
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