Oil Spills News

June 26, 2025

Top Headlines

Predicting Underwater Landslides Before They Strike

May 30, 2025 — A new method for predicting underwater landslides may improve the resilience of offshore ...

A New Approach Could Fractionate Crude Oil Using Much Less Energy

May 22, 2025 — Engineers developed a membrane that filters the components of crude oil by their molecular size, an advance that could dramatically reduce the amount of energy needed for crude oil ...

May 22, 2025 — Hurricane winds are a major contributor to storm-related losses for people living in the southeastern coastal states. As the global temperature continues to rise, scientists predict that hurricanes ...

Climate Change Increases the Risk of Simultaneous Wildfires

Apr. 29, 2025 — Climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires in many regions of the world. This is due partly to specific weather conditions -- known as fire weather -- that facilitate the spread of wildfires. Researchers have found that fire weather seasons ...

Oil Cleanup Agents Do Not Impede Natural Biodegradation

Apr. 22, 2025 — Biodegradation is an important natural process during oil spill cleanup. A new study revealed that using spill treating agents does not negatively impact naturally occurring ...

Study Finds Dramatic Boost in Air Quality from Electrifying Railways

Apr. 16, 2025 — Switching from diesel to electric trains dramatically improved the air quality aboard the San Francisco Bay Area's Caltrain commuter rail line, reducing riders' exposure to the carcinogen black carbon by an average of 89%, finds a new study. The ...

Microbes in Brooklyn Superfund Site Teach Lessons on Fighting Industrial Pollution

Apr. 16, 2025 — Using advanced DNA sequence analysis, a research team has discovered that tiny organisms in Brooklyn's highly contaminated Gowanus Canal have developed a comprehensive collection of ...

Deep-Sea Mining Risks Leads Study to Urge Shift to Circular Solutions

Apr. 14, 2025 — Deep sea mining operations are expected to increase the negative impact on environmental indicators by up to 13 per cent, a change categorized as having 'great' significance, relative to the 'without' DSM scenario, notably through increased coastal ...

Colourful City Birds

Apr. 11, 2025 — Bird species that do well in urban areas are more colorful and less ...

Reusing Old Oil and Gas Wells May Offer Green Energy Storage Solution

Mar. 22, 2025 — Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources like wind and solar will require better ways to store energy for use when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. A new study by researchers at Penn State found that taking advantage of ...

Pacific Island Water Security Requires New Approach

Mar. 15, 2025 — Hydrology experts are calling for urgent investigations into the operation of bore-fields that access fresh groundwater on Pacific islands, including Kiribati, where rising sea levels are already putting local water supplies at ...

Beyond the Burn: Harvesting Dead Wood to Reduce Wildfires and Store Carbon

Feb. 26, 2025 — A century of fire suppression, climate change, and drought has worsened wildfires in the Western U.S. While prescribed burns help reduce fuel, a 'fire deficit' increases wildfire risks, with significant health and environmental impacts. ...

Latest Headlines

updated 2:25pm EDT

Birds-of-Paradise Are Biofluorescent

Feb. 12, 2025 — New research reports, for the first time, the widespread occurrence of biofluorescence in birds-of-paradise. The study, based on specimens collected since the 1800s, finds biofluorescence in 37 of ...

Generating International Testing Standards for Large Outdoor Fires

Feb. 10, 2025 — The recent LA fires drove home how dangerous wildfires can be when they encroach on urban areas. So-called 'wildland-urban interface' fires are on the rise. However, building codes and standards have ...

'Marine Prosperity Areas' Represent a New Hope in Conservation

Feb. 6, 2025 — An international team of researchers introduces a promising new initiative in marine conservation, dubbed 'Marine Prosperity Areas.' This science-informed effort goes beyond protecting marine life -- ...

Nanomaterials Are Emerging as a Powerful Tool for Coastal Oil Spill Cleanup

Feb. 4, 2025 — Advances in nanotechnology may provide solutions to oil spill cleanups in coastal regions that are more effective, safer and work much faster than current methods, according to a new paper. The paper ...

Months After Colorado's Marshall Fire, Residents of Surviving Homes Reported Health Symptoms, Poor Air Quality

Dec. 23, 2024 — Three years after the Dec. 30, 2021, Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County, two new studies offer insight into what happens ...

New Concept for Sustainable Fuel Cell Polymer Electrolytes Overcomes Barriers in High-Temperature, Low-Humidity Use, Advancing Net-Zero Carbon Goals

Dec. 13, 2024 — A research group has developed a new design for the electrolytes used in fuel cells. The material complies with environmental regulations and ...

From Chip Shop to Pit Stop -- Scientists Make Old Cooking Oil Biofuel as Efficient as Diesel

Dec. 6, 2024 — A new way to produce fuels made from leftover fat can create biofuel as effective as diesel and 1000-times more efficiently than current methods a ...

AI Helps Researchers Dig Through Old Maps to Find Lost Oil and Gas Wells

Dec. 4, 2024 — Undocumented orphaned wells pose hazards to both the environment and the climate. Scientists are building modern tools to help locate, assess, and pave the way for ultimately plugging these forgotten ...

Fighting Microplastics for a Cleaner Future

Nov. 12, 2024 — Creating sustainable chemicals and developing better waste management will contribute to better sustainability. This research is part of figuring out how to make green hydrogen available for waste ...

Wildfires Are Becoming Faster and More Dangerous in Western U.S.

Oct. 24, 2024 — Fire speed, not size, drives threat to people and ...

Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Forest Fires Increase by 60 Percent

Oct. 17, 2024 — A major new study reveals that carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires have surged by 60 percent globally since 2001, and almost tripled in some of the most climate-sensitive northern boreal ...

Echoes from the Past: A Geological Mystery Unravelled on Easter Island

Oct. 16, 2024 — A mysterious find on Easter Island, investigated by a team of geologists, suggests that the Earth's mantle seems to behave differently than once ...

Liquefied Natural Gas Carbon Footprint Is Worse Than Coal

Oct. 3, 2024 — Liquefied natural gas leaves a greenhouse gas footprint that is 33% worse than coal, when processing and shipping are taken into account, according to a new ...

Using High Resolution Mass Spectrometry to Study Fuel Chemistry

Aug. 28, 2024 — Researchers have developed new analytical methods to rapidly analyze fuels and complex petroleum products by using high-resolution mass ...

Climate Change Raised the Odds of Unprecedented Wildfires in 2023-24

Aug. 13, 2024 — Unprecedented wildfires in Canada and parts of Amazonia last year were at least three times more likely due to climate change and contributed to high levels of CO2 emissions from burning globally, ...

How Saharan Dust Regulates Hurricane Rainfall

July 24, 2024 — New research underscores the close relationship between dust plumes transported from the Sahara Desert in Africa, and rainfall from tropical cyclones along the U.S. Gulf Coast and ...

How Pollution May Remain in Water After Oil Spill Cleanups

July 18, 2024 — The way oil drops break up at the water's surface means some oil may not get cleaned up after a ...

The Gulf Stream Is Wind-Powered and Could Weaken from Climate Change

July 10, 2024 — New evidence of changes to the Gulf Stream during the last ice age could indicate additional sensitivity to future climatic changes, finds a new ...

Wildfires Increasingly Threaten Oil and Gas Drill Sites, Compounding Potential Health Risks

June 25, 2024 — More than 100,000 oil and gas wells across the western U.S. are in areas burned by wildfires in recent decades, a new study has found, and some 3 million people live next to wells that in the future ...

Fuel Treatments Reduce Future Wildfire Severity

June 24, 2024 — There is a common belief that prescribed burning, thinning trees, and clearing underbrush reduce risks of the severity of future fires. But is that true? A new project analyzing 40 studies where ...

Effective Hurricane Risk Messaging

June 17, 2024 — Forecasters can use images in social media to better communicate weather related hazards of hurricanes, according to a pair of new ...

New Research Reveals That Prehistoric Seafloor Pockmarks Off the California Coast Are Maintained by Powerful Sediment Flows

May 21, 2024 — New research on a field of pockmarks -- large, circular depressions on the seafloor -- offshore of Central California has revealed that powerful sediment flows, not methane gas eruptions, maintain ...

Electric School Buses May Yield Significant Health and Climate Benefits, Cost Savings

May 20, 2024 — Replacing diesel school buses with electric school buses may yield up to $247,600 in climate and health benefits per individual bus, according to a new study. The researchers found that these ...

Anthropologist Documents How Women and Shepherds Historically Reduced Wildfire Risk in Central Italy

Apr. 26, 2024 — Fire management lessons from the past could help to improve resilience as the Mediterranean faces increased fire risk from climate change. How traditional land management practices once greatly ...

New Offshore Wind Turbines Can Take Away Energy from Existing Ones

Apr. 25, 2024 — Interactions between wind turbines could reduce power output by 30% in proposed offshore wind farm areas along the East Coast, new research has found. In all, the farms could still meet 60% of the ...

The Longer Spilled Oil Lingers in Freshwater, the More Persistent Compounds It Produces

Apr. 25, 2024 — Oil is an important natural resource for many industries, but it can lead to serious environmental damage when accidentally spilled. While large oil spills are highly publicized, every year there are ...

Laser-Treated Cork Absorbs Oil for Carbon-Neutral Ocean Cleanup

Apr. 23, 2024 — Researchers use laser treatments to transform ordinary cork into a powerful tool for treating oil spills. They tested variations of a fast-pulsing laser treatment, closely examining the nanoscopic ...

Fourteen Years After the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, Endemic Fishes Face an Uncertain Future

Apr. 18, 2024 — The 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the largest accidental spill in history, released almost 100 million gallons of oil, causing significant pollution. A decade later, its long-term ...

Can Bismuth Prevent Oil Leaks?

Apr. 18, 2024 — Companies can't simply walk away from old oil and gas wells. They have to be capped in a way that protects the environment and prevents leaks. A new approach to today's solution could be ...

Unintended Consequences of Fire Suppression

Mar. 25, 2024 — A new study reveals how fire suppression ensures that wildfires will burn under extreme conditions at high severity, exacerbating the impacts of climate change and fuel ...