Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn researchers discover protective power of Mississippi River

The Mississippi, North America’s largest river and the fourth-largest river in the world, is a powerful natural force. So powerful, it appears, that the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill changed course due to the river’s outflow, sparing the Louisiana coast from worse oil pollution than it might have otherwise experienced.

Katherine Unger Baillie

A Push From the Mississippi Kept Deepwater Horizon Oil Slick Off Shore, Penn Research Shows

PHILADELPHIA — When the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, 2010, residents feared that their Gulf of Mexico shores would be inundated with oil. And while many wetland habitats and wildlife were oiled during the three-month leak, the environmental damage to coastal Louisiana was less than many expected, in part because much of the crude never made it to the coast.

Katherine Unger Baillie