"Computer Model Shows Oil Likely to Spread to Atlantic" (with video)

PBS, with video (00:34):

The oil from the BP leak could reach far beyond the Gulf of Mexico, according to a new computer model released Thursday that shows currents could carry some of the slick up the Atlantic coast.

The creators of the model, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said oil could reach the open Atlantic Ocean as early as this summer.

The model shows the Gulf of Mexico's Loop Current carrying oil to Florida's Atlantic Coast, where it could be carried north in the Gulf Stream as far as North Carolina, and then be pulled east out into the Atlantic.

Synte Peacock, an NCAR scientist who worked on the model, said it is nearly impossible to predict when the Loop Current will start picking up oil, but that once it does, oil could make it to the Atlantic within days.

"We can say with a high degree of likelihood that oil will get out to the Gulf Stream," Peacock said. "What we can't say is when." MORE...