About 126.3 million gallons of oil has gushed into the Gulf since the BP oil rig exploded April 20. That calculation is based on the higher end of the government’s range of barrels leaked per day and the oil company BP’s calculations for the amount of oil siphoned off. Using the more optimistic end of calculations, the total spill figure is just shy of 68 million gallons.
For this perspective, the Associated Press is using the higher figure.
If all the oil spilled were divided up and equal amounts given to every American, we would all get about four soda cans full of crude
The Mississippi River pours as much water into the Gulf of Mexico in 38 seconds as the BP oil leak has done in two months.
The amount of oil spilled would fill 9,200 of average-sized living rooms.
If you put the oil in gallon milk jugs and lined them up, they would stretch about 11,000 miles.
The amount of oil spilled so far could only fill the cavernous New Orleans Superdome about one-seventh of the way up. On the other hand, it could fill 15 Washington Monuments and two-thirds of the way up a 16th.
If the oil were poured on a football field — complete with endzones — it would measure nearly 100 yards high.
