UCSB researchers from several different departments have joined forces and combined their expertise to help assess the potential impacts of the recent Refugio oil spill. The following are extracts relating to the Department of Geography from an article on the subject, written by Andrea Estrada and Shelly Leachman for The UCSB Current, posted May 22, 2015, and titled “Expert Response”:
A large group of UCSB scientists, researchers, and engineers have responded to the oil spill by pooling their considerable expertise. Working often in collaboration with one another, they are gathering and providing myriad data and observations to agencies such as the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System, which is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s response team. Their research is likely to help inform ongoing response and cleanup efforts.
UCSB geographer and marine scientist Libe Washburn is part of a research effort monitoring real-time surface currents and plume trajectory via high-frequency radar. “We have a network of equipment along the coast, and Wednesday we installed some of our equipment out near Gaviota,” he said. “This is a new site that we added to improve our coverage and our ability to track the oil movement.”
Also seeking to shed light on how and where the oil might move are David Siegel, professor of Geography and director of the UCSB’s Earth Research Institute, and project scientist Leonel Romero. Their research has examined land-ocean interactions in the Santa Barbara Channel to determine how material from coastal streams makes its way into the ocean. “Our focus has been to figure out how coastal streams mix their materials into the ocean,” Siegel said. “We’re taking the same approaches and applying them to a point release just off Refugio Beach.”
