Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Both water damping effects, Marangoni damping and viscous damping,
may be observed in parallel, if crude oil spills drifted on the sea surface for
many days, weeks or even months. Then, the alkanes, cycloalkanes and
aromatics will be subject to photochemical and microbial transformation
processes (the so-called
weathering process
), by means of which surface-
active compounds may be formed, which in turn may spread and thus form
large area monomolecular slicks around the smaller areas of thicker crude
oil layers. Within the outer areas of monomolecular regimes Marangoni
damping with its resonance-type damping characteristics may be observed
(Alpers and Hühnerfuss 1988), while within the thick crude oil layers vis-
cous damping will still dominate.
As a consequence of the slick- or spill-induced water wave field various
remote sensing signals and several air/sea exchange processes such as gas
exchange and exchange of inorganic and organic chemical substances will
be modified. These aspects will be further pursued in specific articles of
the present monograph.
In conclusion, the main differences in slick and spill characteristics as
well as the implications for the respective nomenclature are summarised in
Table 1.
5. Comparative studies of slicks and spills
Comparative studies of sea slicks and crude oil spills are scarce, in parti-
cular investigations, in the course of which both spills and slicks were gen-
erated within the same sea area, at the same time, overflown by the same
airborne or spaceborne remote sensors. It would be beyond the scope of
this chapter, which actually intended to supply the basic chemical back-
ground information for the interpretation of remote sensing signals, to give
a detailed appreciation of the few comprehensive slick/spill studies report-
ed in the literature. Herein, only a brief summary as well as references can
be given that will allow the reader to dive deeper into this aspect by con-
sulting the original reports and papers.
