Through many hours of research I have determined that the spill cleaning techniques used to clean the Prince William Sound area of Alaska did more harm than leaving the oil where it was. The Alaskan oil spill has become the most studied and managed event of its kind. Although there is not much that can be done about the marine life that came into direct contact with the crude oil, the geologic effects that the oil introduced into the area should have been left to nature to repair. To understand the effects of the oil to the area, it is best that you know a little bit about the oil itself.

There are many types of crude oil, but in general they contain hundreds, even thousands of different compounds. Some are straight-chain hydrocarbons with carbon numbers ranging from 4 or 5 to 35 or more. Other hydrocarbons have branched chains with a wide range of carbon numbers. Aromatic compounds such as benzene, toluene, and polynuclear hydrocarbons are substantially present. Other constituents include waxes and complex, high molecular weight asphaltenes. (Abelson) All of these substances and more are present in Prudhoe Bay crude oil. When ingested, most of the compounds are nontoxic.

There are many ways that nature fights oil in the environment, when it gets put where its not suppose to be. After all crude oil is a natural part of our environment. In one study designed to simulate the effects of waves and tides, contact with seawater gave the black, sticky oil "the fluffy appearance of a flocculated emulsion" that no longer strongly adheres well to sediment, Bragg reports. Seawater made up about 80 percent of these cloud-like aggregates. The rest consisted largely of mineral grains stably bound to oil droplets 1 to 10 microns in diameter. (Beached)

local glaciers -- along the southern Alaskan shoreline contributed to the unusually efficient emulsification of beached Valdez oil, the Exxon studies indicate. (Beached) They also suggest that adding such flours to shores with low clay contents might augment the natural cleanup of oil spills in the future.

In conclusion there will most likely be no long-term effects of the oil spill. The efforts to clean it will add to the time of recovery, but Mother Nature will catch up and before to long you will not be able to tell that an oil spill even occurred, both cosmetically and ecologically. The money used to clean the spill was mostly for the public's approval. They cleaned for the press and the media. Pressure washing only killed the organisms and plants on the shorelines. Sylvia Earle says: "Sometimes the best, and ironically the most difficult, thing to do in the face of an ecological disaster is to do nothing."

Typical crude has a density of about 0.85, more or less, and this factor combined with winds, wave action, and currents leads to spreading, which is very rapid during the first 24 hours. During that period most of the components having boiling points below 200[deg.]C volatilize. As a result some of the toxic chemicals such as benzene are removed. (The composition of the floating mixture is further changed immediately and later by photooxidation, biodegradation, dispersion, and dissolution. About a day a

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bragg Moreover, William Sound, Prudhoe Bay, Sound Observations, Sound Alaska, Administration NOAA, Mother Nature, Forest Service, Alaska Current, Seattle Rockweed, william sound, prince william, crude oil, prince william sound, hot water, oil spill, effects oil, oil spills, american association advancement, leaving oil, aromatic compounds, association advancement science, high-pressure hot, beached valdez oil, high-pressure hot water,
Approximate Word count = 1347
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)