Take the heartbreaking feeling that creeps into your soul every time you think of the Oil spill bullshit going on right now in the gulf region… and now double it! As bad as it all seems to the naked eye, National Geographic has thrown down some images showing even more than what the typical human can observe. Taking what we see as an incredibly life-altering experience… and using science to show us how bad it REALLY is.
Here’s an excerpt from NG’s interview with a coastal geologist working in the gulf area:
Under UV light, clean sand appears purple or black. Some minerals, such as calcium carbonate in seashells, glow blue, as does a shovel handle in the picture above.
Although hydrocarbons have long been known to fluoresce, or glow, under ultraviolet light, this may be the first time the technology has been used outside a lab to spot oil. “The use of UV light to identify [types of] oil is an industry-wide process,” said Kirby, a graduate student at the University of South Florida. But “I’ve always seen it in a [lab] machine,” he said.
“The first time I took the UV flashlight out on the beach to see if it would work, it was beyond my wildest dreams,” Kirby said. “It was easy to see that there was oil on the beach … the contamination was widespread.”
Click HERE for more of the interview, and more pictures.
