Modeling the impacts of the north cape oil spill

摘要

On January 19-20, 1996, during a severe winter storm, the barge North Cape spilled 828,000 agallons of home heating oil (No. 2 fuel oil) into the surf zone on the south coast of Rhode ishand. Most of the oil was mixed into the water column by the heavy surf, resulting in high concentrations of the toxic components (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs) in the shallow water near the lbeach. Surface oil was primarily in the form of sheens, produced by resurfacing of oil after the w inds and waves died down follwing the storm.