With nearly $200,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation, researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at The Florida State University are using incredibly precise analytical tools housed at the lab to analyze petroleum samples collected from the Gulf of Mexico. Results of those analyses will help determine... More

A Florida State University oceanography professor is questioning government estimates that the vast majority of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill is already gone from the Gulf or is being rapidly broken down by bacteria.

“I think the imprint of the BP release, the discharge, will be detectable in the Gulf of Mexico for... More

A giant, low-oxygen “dead zone” where no sea life can exist occurs each summer in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the added effects of this year’s Deepwater Horizon oil disaster raise new questions about just how much environmental degradation the Gulf can handle, Bloomberg News reports.

“You start adding these things up,... More

This week, two Florida State University oceanography professors dug trenches on a stretch of Pensacola Beach that had recently been cleaned of visible oil and tar balls. What they found, reports National Geographic, was unsettling: Large swaths of oil up to 2 feet deep remained.

“So far, we haven’t seen any rapid degradation... More

Oil is no longer spewing from the damaged Deepwater Horizon drilling site, but how the oil that is already spilled will continue to effect Gulf ecosystems is largely unknown. Ian MacDonald, a professor of oceanography at Florida State, shared his thoughts during an Aug. 1 interview on NPR.

“The question is: Will the Gulf of... More

“There’s a tremendous amount of outrage with the oil spill, and rightfully so. But where’s the outrage at the thousands and millions of little cuts we’ve made on a daily basis?”

— Felicia Coleman, director of Florida State’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory, quoted in More

“My bet is that BP will finally go bankrupt from the tort liability and the environmental liability,” she said. “Hypothetically, a bluefin tuna farmer in the Mediterranean could end up with a claim against BP.”

— Florida State University environmental law professor Robin Kundis... More

In some parts of the Florida Panhandle, coastal communities say they’re seeing 80 percent cancellation rates for vacation rentals because of oil and tar balls washing up the beaches from the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Discussing the summer resort season that wasn’t is Mark Bonn, the Robert H. Dedman Professor of Service... More

“It wouldn’t surprise me if there were 2,000 communities, from suburbs to cities.”

— Florida State University oceanography Professor Ian R. MacDonald, quoted in The New York Times on June 22, 2010, about the possible... More

A Florida State University oceanographer is pointing out another environmental threat from the Gulf oil spill that has been little discussed until now: the potential for tons of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, to make its way into the Earth’s atmosphere, thereby increasing the rate of global warming.

Jeff Chanton is the... More