The Guardian has an informative interactive map. It looks pretty grim.
According to the
sources gathered on Wikipedia, the spill is looking like this:
- Up to 1,000 barrels of oil a day (1.84 litres/second) (original estimate)
- 5,000 barrels/day (April 28 estimate by the NOAA)
- 5,000 to 10,000 barrels/day (other sources using satellite imagery)
The slick covers an estimated 6,000 square miles as of April 30. So it's bigger than Connecticut now.
To compare, the
Exxon Valdez oil spill was 250,000 barrels and covered 1,300 square miles.
They're saying that it could take up to three months to drill a secondary line to the main bore hole to install a valve to stop the spill. However, they're trying to capture as much of it as they can through various means. But considering just how much oil is being (and has been) pumping into the ocean, it all looks quite grim.