Page 155 - Crystals News Today

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The plan that bp is going to try. they tried, david, to drop this concrete box over the hole to contain the oil flow and have it siphoned up to the pipe of the surfa surface. that didnt work. >> reporter: well, theyre still working on a variation of that system, that massive dome that they built to put in place, actually filled up with crystals that clogged it up. so they set it aside. their solution for this is to try a smaller dome. theyre calling it a top hat. its only about five feet tall, a...

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Can warm up those crystals and stop them from forming also maybe pumping water through or bringing it up to a little bit of a higher depth so that they can get those ice crystals to melt. but right now they really dont know what the solution will be, and thats at least a day away before they come up with something, alex. >> okay. and these tar clumps a washing ashore in alabama. what kind of havoc is that wreaking? >> reporter: yeah. a lot of concern about that. its an indication that the oil is...

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David. >> reporter: these hydrates theyre talking about are actually, theyre like ice crystals. this is when gas under pressure and the cold temperatures combine with water to form these crystals. like lighter than water. when they start to koaccumulate inside, they were making it bouyant. it was clogging it up as well. they had to set it to the side. now theyll take the next couple days to figure out how to bring a heat source down to the bottom of the ocean there, possibly pumping water from t...

The actually break up those crystals? >> no, because it would have broken them up already. the way it was described you have the frigid temperatures, some 43 degrees fahrenheit down at the depth, a mile below the surface. its so cold when the gas comes up in there, it forms hydrates or ice crystals. they knew it could possibly form. i wanted to stress, they didnt think it would form inside the dome, but as it was going up the thin channel of pipeway up to the top of the surface. they are scratch...

Spill, says the senator whose own state is staring down the barrel of 4 million gallons of coastal oil and counting. joining us now live from venice, louisiana, is nbc news chief environmental affairs correspondent ann thompson. thank you so much for your time tonight. what can you tell us about the effort to cap this well? >> well, rachel, theyre pursuing something called the top hat, a smaller containment dome on the sea floor. over the next 24 hours or so, engineers hope to actually move it o...

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