Fate and effects of crude oil spilled on subarctic permafrost terrain in interior Alaska: Fifteen years later

Technical Report · Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993

OSTI ID:5562062

Collins, C M; Racine, C H; Walsh, M E

The effects of two large experimental oil spills conducted in the winter and summer of 1976 in the permafrost-underlain black spruce forest of interior Alaska were assessed 15 years after the spills. Effects on the permafrost, as determined from measurements of active layer thaw depths and of the total amount of ground subsidence, were far more pronounced on the winter spill because it had a larger area with oil on the surface. The winter spill also had a more drastic effect on the vegetation. Where the black, asphalt-like oil is present on the surface, black spruce mortality is 100% and there is very little live vegetation cover, except for cottongrass tussocks. Changes in oil chemistry vary with depth; surface samples show signs of microbiological degradation, whereas some subsurface samples taken just above the permafrost show no evidence of degradation and still contain volatiles. Black spruce forest, Crude oil, Oil spills, Terrestrial oil spills, Interior Alaska, Permafrost.

• Research Organization: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab., Hanover, NH (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5562062
• Report Number(s): AD-A-270030/0/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
OIL SPILLS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
PERMAFROST
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
ALASKA
ASPHALTS
FORESTS
GROUND SUBSIDENCE
MICROORGANISMS
MORTALITY
PETROLEUM
PLANT GROWTH
SAMPLING
SPRUCES
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
UNDERGROUND
BITUMENS
CONIFERS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ECOSYSTEMS
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GROWTH
LEVELS
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PINOPHYTA
PLANTS
TAR
TREES
USA
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
540250 - Environment
Terrestrial- Site Resource & Use Studies- (1990-)