Sometimes Oil and Water Do Mix

CMOP scientists are working with industry to develop instruments that specifically detects aging oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The goal is to use fluorescence to measure the amount of oil in the water column. Part of the research includes dissolving components of crude oil in water and then detecting them with fluorescence spectroscopy. Those samples are degraded and the scientists look at how the signal changes over time, as if the environment was weathering it. This provides data on the behavior of the crude oil fluorescence properties in the ocean.

In the photo, Leslie Slasor, an OHSU graduate student, is inspecting a sample of crude oil where some components have mixed with water. Read her aticle about the research.