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Sunshine is making Deepwater Horizon oil stick around

Nearly a decade after the spill, oxygen-rich by-products don’t seem to be going anywhere

oil spill

JUST ADD SUNLIGHT  Oil swirls at the water’s surface after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Sunlight transformed the oil molecules on the surface into new molecules that are still sticking around.

NOAA

By Laurel Hamers

- More than 2 years ago

Sunlight shapes oil spills’ long-term legacies.

In the days and weeks after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, sunlight hit the oil slicks on the surface of the water.