This article, with some incredible photographs, was forwarded to me by the Council on the Safe Transport of Hazardous Articles (COSTHA). The photos show the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that recently sank in 5,000 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico. The extent of the initial explosion and the efforts to combat the resulting fire were astonishing. In addition to the resulting natural disaster, sadly, there are still 11 men missing that are not expected to be found.
The rig represented the cutting edge of drilling technology. It was a floating rig, capable of working in up to 10,000 ft water depth. The rig was not moored; it did not use anchors because it would be too costly and too heavy to suspend the mooring load from the floating structure. Rather, a triply-redundant computer system used satellite based, Dynamic Positioning, to control powerful thrusters that kept the rig and station within a few feet of its intended location at all times. Click here to see the photos.
