An oil spill off China's coast is the world's biggest since Deepwater Horizon — and it more than tripled in size over the weekend

pulse

January 22, 2018 10:51 PM

A tanker carrying 122,000 tons of oil sank in the East China Sea, and investigators are only beginning to figure out the scale of the spill.

An Iranian oil tanker carrying 122,000 tons of oil sank after it collided with a Hong Kong-based tanker in the East China Sea.
The collision caused an explosion that sent thousands of tons of oil spilling into the ocean.
The tanker was carrying condensate, a type of ultra-light crude oil that is more difficult to clean up than heavy crude oil.
It's still not clear how big the spill will become, or what the impact on marine life will be.

An oil spill off the coast of China is now the world's largest since the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which spilled millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

A 900-foot Iranian oil tanker called the Sanchiwas carrying over

China's State Oceanic Administration said in a statement that the oil spill more than tripled in size over the weekend. There are currently more than three oil slicks with a surface area of approximately 332 square kilometers, or 128 miles. That's up from 101 square kilometers (38 square miles) on Wednesday. It's still not clear how large the spill will become, as much of the oil may have burned up in the initial collision.

The explosion that resulted from the crash sent flames shooting into the air, and the tanker continued burning for days afterwards.

Rescue ships sailed to the area and worked to extinguish the fire on the Sanchi after the collision.

The three rescue ships shown from above in this image provide a sense of the spill's scale.

Condensate spills are more difficult to clean up than heavy crude oil spills like Deepwater Horizon or Exxon Valdez.

Condensate also doesn't form a containable oil slick for long — the toxic substance can evaporate into the atmosphere or dissolve in water.

The area where the Sanchi sank is an important fishing ground for blue crab and yellow croaker fish, according to Greenpeace.

Chinese, Japanese, and Iranian authorities launched search-and-rescue missions to find survivors and contain the flames, but reports suggest only three bodies have been found in the wreckage.

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