墨西哥湾的油污真的能清理干净?

Since the Gulf oil spill of April 2010, people have been asking, “Can you really clean up an oil spill?”

今年4月墨西哥湾爆发漏油事故以来，许多观众向我们提问：漏油事故的油污能被彻底清理吗？

Nancy Rabalais: Well, not entirely. The oil will penetrate into habitats that it’s difficult to get the oil out of.

南希·拉尔莱：完全清理油污是不可能的。它们会蔓延到人们不易接近的生物栖息地，从而难以清理。

That answer comes from biological oceanographer Nancy Rabalais of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

您正在收听的是路易斯安那大学海事协会海洋生物学家南希·拉尔莱的讲话。

Nancy Rabalais: Eventually, oil does degrade. The toxic fractions are all removed through natural processes, you know, oxidation and photodegradation and things like that, microbial decomposition. It’s just that it’s not something that’s gonna to go away overnight, for sure, or even in a couple of years.

南希·拉尔莱：最终石油是会降解的。有毒物质经过氧化、光降解、微生物作用等自然过程被降级。但整个过程绝不是一夜之间、甚至几年的事。

She said the April 2010 explosion that sent millions of gallons of crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico threatens the hard-to-reach salt marshes lining the Gulf Coast.

她表示2010年墨西哥湾油井爆炸喷发出来的原油已经对沿岸的盐沼造成威胁，这些盐沼是人们很难接近的。

Nancy Rabalais: You can’t just get to them by boat. You can’t get to them by land. Helicopter, I guess you could. There’s just too much marshland involved. So there will be some oiling that can’t be easily removed without doing further damage to the marsh.

南希·拉尔莱：你不可能坐船去清理油污，也不能从陆路过去，也许可以坐直升机吧。总之受污染的湿地太多了，你不可能在清理油污的同时不进一步破坏湿地。

We have an 8-minute interview with Dr. Rabalais on the impact and clean-up of the Gulf oil spil at our websitel. Ask your science question on Facebook. Search for us there as "earthsky".

我们的网站上发布了拉尔莱博士关于本次漏油事故的影响及清理的8分钟访谈。如果您有任何科学疑问，欢迎登陆Facebook搜索earthsky向我们提问。