Large oil spill near Los Angeles, United States

Sentinel-2 MSI acquired on 30 September 2021 at 18:31:51 UTC
Sentinel-1 CSAR IW acquired on 02 October 2021 at 01:58:21 UTC
Sentinel-2 MSI acquired on 05 October 2021 at 18:31:39 UTC
Author(s): Sentinel Vision team, VisioTerra, France - svp@visioterra.fr
Keyword(s): Emergency, pollution, water quality, marine environment, oil spill, pipeline, oil and gas, ship security, California, United States, USA, Pacific Ocean
Fig. 1 - S1 (02.10.2021) - An oil spill was detected south of Los Angeles, 8 km off the coast. The spill was estimated at 34 km² surface and a 480 m3 volume.
2D view
Fig. 2 - S1 (02.10.2021) - US coast guards reported approximately 14 300 liters of oil have been recovered from the water and 1600 m of boom has been deployed
2D view
Christina Pascucci of KTLA wrote that US coast guards say upon further investigation they have determined 1200 m of the 28 km pipeline coming from platform Elly has been displaced by 32 m. They found a 33 cm split on pipeline.
Fig. 3 - S2 (30.09.2021) - View of platform Elly, the top one of the twin platforms.
2D view
Fig. 4 - S2 (05.10.2021) - It's the pipeline between platform Elly and the coast that is likely in cause for the oil spill that reached Huntington beach.
2D view
According to Skytruth analysis of undersea images taken by US coast guards, "it looks like seam failure - not damage by anchor strike or other physical impact." They add this pipeline was installed by Shell. And "according to this permit, it was supposed to be buried at least 3 m below the seafloor. Yet clearly it is sitting on top of the seafloor."
The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency or the European Union.
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024, processed by VisioTerra.
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