Skytruth coal and other minerals throughout the United States. In April 2010, the offshore oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, operated by BP P.L.C., exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and triggered the largest accidental oil spill in history. In cooperation with Florida State University, SkyTruth estimated the amount of oil flow from the damaged well-using satellite imagery and determined based conservative estimates using the visible surface slick that the flow of oil was between 5 and 25 times greater than BP reported. SkyTruth was the first organization to challenge BP's claims, and continued to monitor and document flow from the well
Environmental impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that the damage from the spill would rapidly resolve, three years into the recovery dolphins continue to die, fish are showing strange lesions, corals in the gulf have died and oil still remains in some marsh areas. Due to both its size and the way it was handled, there is little previous research to predict long-term effects. At the 2013 "Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference", oceanographer David Hollander presented data that showed as much as one-third of the oil released during the spill may still be in the gulf. Researchers described a phenomenon called "dirty blizzard":