Sizing Up Oil Drilling Rigs in the Gulf

News
By published
Infographic on oil and gas drilling rigs in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. (Image credit: Karl Tate / LiveScience.com.)

The Mariner Engery oil platform that erupted into flames in the Gulf Thursday has reportedly taken no lives, with all crew workers rescued and no signs of a leak. Even so, the accident, on the heels of the months-long Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, has sparked lots of talk on the dangers of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Here's a look at oil and gas production in the Gulf.

Karl Tate
Karl Tate
LiveScience Infographic Artist
Karl has been Purch's infographics specialist across all editorial properties since 2010.  Before joining Purch, Karl spent 11 years at the New York headquarters of The Associated Press, creating news graphics for use around the world in newspapers and on the web.  He has a degree in graphic design from Louisiana State University.

Catquistadors: Oldest known domestic cats in the US died off Florida coast in a 1559 Spanish shipwreck

'Vaccine rejection is as old as vaccines themselves': Science historian Thomas Levenson on the history of germ theory and its deniers

Astronomers discover giant 'bridge' in space that could finally solve a violent galactic mystery
See more latest
Most Popular
A cat sleeping on a ship
Catquistadors: Oldest known domestic cats in the US died off Florida coast in a 1559 Spanish shipwreck
a diagram showing the Perseus galaxy cluster
Astronomers discover giant 'bridge' in space that could finally solve a violent galactic mystery
A lot of galaxies are seen as bright spots on a dark background. Toward the left, the JWST is shown in an illustration.
James Webb Space Telescope finds a wild black hole growth spurt in galaxies at 'cosmic noon'
A top down view of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 1960s molten salt reactor experiment, an early precursor to the Chinese reactor.
'Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance': Chinese scientists make nuclear power breakthrough using abandoned US research
A crowd of people in Sants train station in Barcelona, Spain.
What is 'induced atmospheric vibration' and did it really cause power outages across Spain and Portugal?
Grand Prismatic Spring, Midway Geyser, Yellowstone.
Yellowstone holds potentially untapped cache of 'carbon-free' helium for rockets, reactors and superconductors
Rig shark on a black background
Do sharks make noises? An accidental discovery might just answer that question
an illustration of a satellite
China uses 'gravitational slingshots' to save 2 satellites that were stuck in the wrong orbit for 123 days
An image of the Circinus West molecular cloud
Scientists spot a 'dark nebula' being torn apart by rowdy infant stars — offering clues about our own solar system's past
A series of white military-style headstones are placed close to one another in the ground against a fence and bushes. A state historical marker is seen in the foreground.
Mass graves of Black Union soldiers slaughtered by Confederate guerrillas possibly identified in Kentucky