Via: WRAL.com
As the Coast Guard searches for 11 crew members missing after a drilling rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, authorities turned their focus to controlling an oil spill that could threaten the fragile ecosystem of the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts…
A 1-by-5-mile sheen of crude oil mix has spread across the Gulf of Mexico’s surface around the area where the oil rig exploded and sank. Yesterday officials feared as much as 336,000 gallons of crude oil a day could be rising from the sea floor 5,000 feet below.
Earlier today Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said that no oil appeared to be leaking from the well head at the ocean floor, nor was any leaking at the water’s surface. However, Landry said crews were closely monitoring the rig for any more crude that might spill out.
