page_title: Marcia McNutt
section_title: BP oil spill
hierarchical_section_title: Marcia McNutt / U.S. Geological Survey / BP oil spill
caption_attribution_description: English: Description from NASA (source): "NASA's Terra Satellites Sees Spill on May 24 Sunlight illuminated the lingering oil slick off the Mississippi Delta on May 24, 2010. The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image the same day. Oil smoothes the ocean surface, making the Sun’s reflection brighter near the centerline of the path of the satellite, and reducing the scattering of sunlight in other places. As a result, the oil slick is brighter than the surrounding water in some places (image center) and darker than the surrounding water in others (image lower right). The tip of the Mississippi Delta is surrounded by muddy water that appears light tan. Bright white ribbons of oil streak across this sediment-laden water. Tendrils of oil extend to the north and east of the main body of the slick. A small, dark plume along the edge of the slick, not far from the original location of the Deepwater Horizon rig, indicates a possible controlled burn of oil on the ocean surface. To the west of the bird’s-foot part of the delta, dark patches in the water may also be oil, but detecting a manmade oil slick in coastal areas can be even more complicated than detecting it in the open ocean. When oil slicks are visible in satellite images, it is because they have changed how the water reflects light, either by making the Sun’s reflection brighter or by dampening the scattering of sunlight, which makes the oily area darker. In coastal areas, however, similar changes in reflectivity can occur from differences in salinity (fresh versus salt water) and from naturally produced oils from plants. Michon Scott NASA's Earth Observatory NASA Goddard Space Flight Center" Français&#160;: Traduction partielle de la description par la NASA(source): La marée noire causée par l'incendie de la plateforme pétrolière Deepwater Horizon vue par le satellite Terra, de la NASA, le 24 mai 2010. Cette image a été acquise par le Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS, pour Spectroradiomètre d'imagerie à résolution moyenne), embarqué sur le satellite Terra. Le pétrole lisse la surface de l'océan, ce qui la rend plus claire là où elle réfléchit le soleil (par exemple, au centre de la photo) et plus sombre ailleurs (par exemple en bas à droite). Le delta du Mississippi est visible en haut, entouré d'eaux saumâtres et boueuses qui apparaissent en brun, rayé de rubans argentés de pétrole. Des dendrites de pétrole sont aussi visible au nord et à l'est. Un petit panache sombre près du centre de la marée noire, où se trouvait à l'origine la plateforme, correspond peut être à un feu contrôlé visant à la limiter. A l'ouest de la "patte d'oiseau" que le Mississippi dessine dans le Golfe du Mexique, on peut voir des taches sombres, qui sont peut être du pétrole, ou peut être pas, car d'autres phénomènes peuvent avoir le même aspect dans ces eaux marécageuses et saumâtres.
context_page_description: Marcia Kemper McNutt, ForMemRS, is an American geophysicist and the 22nd president of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. Previously, she served as editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Science from 2013 to 2016. McNutt holds a visiting appointment at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine advisory committee for the Division on Earth and Life Studies and the Forum on Open Science. McNutt chaired the NASEM climate intervention committee who delivered two reports in 2015.
  McNutt was the 15th director of the United States Geological Survey as well as science adviser to the United States Secretary of the Interior. Before working for USGS, McNutt was president and chief executive officer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, an oceanographic research center in the United States, professor of marine geophysics at the Stanford University School of Earth Sciences and professor of marine geophysics at University of California, Santa Cruz.
context_section_description: During her first year, four major events impacted USGS in quick succession: a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, an 8.0 earthquake in Chile, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull and the BP oil spill.
  In May 2010, McNutt headed the Flow Rate Technical Group which attempted to measure the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Preliminary reports from the group said that the rate of the oil spill was at least twice and possibly up to five times as much as previously acknowledged. Subsequent estimates, based on six independent methodologies, were four times the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. A refined estimate based on new pressure readings, data, and analysis, released by the United States Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and McNutt in August, said that 4.9 million barrels (with uncertainty of plus or minus approximately 10 percent) of oil had leaked from the well until it was capped on July 15. The disaster was the largest ever accidental spill of oil into marine waters.
  In a two-day deposition during October 2012, McNutt was questioned by lawyers for BP, for the Justice Department, for plaintiffs, and for the Gulf states. Subject to approval by U.S. federal courts, BP agreed to a settlement in November 2012 in which the company pleaded guilty to felony charges of misconduct or neglect concerning eleven deaths at the explosion site. The company agreed to pay US$4.5 billion including US$1.256 billion in criminal fines. As of 2012, BP may still be liable for US$5.4 to US$31 billion in civil fines under the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act.
caption: The Deepwater Horizon oil spill. McNutt headed the Flow Rate Technical Group who determined the extent of the spill.
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