Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill The "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill was discovered on the afternoon of 22 April 2010 when a large oil slick began to spread at the former rig site. According to the Flow Rate Technical Group, the leak amounted to about of oil, exceeding the 1989 "Exxon Valdez" oil spill as the largest ever to originate in U.S.-controlled waters and the 1979 Ixtoc I oil spill as the largest spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has challenged this calculation saying that it is overestimated as it includes over of oil which was
Volume and extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill water in a "dissolved or dispersed form". On 16 August 2010, UGA scientists said their analysis of federal estimates show that 80% of the oil the government said was gone from the Gulf of Mexico is still there. The Georgia team said "it is a misinterpretation of data to claim that oil that is dissolved is actually gone". Oil began washing up on the beaches of Gulf Islands National Seashore on 1 June 2010. By 4 June 2010, the spill had landed on of Louisiana's coast, had washed up along Mississippi and Alabama barrier islands, and was found for the