How does oil effect land, air, and water.?

Question

How does oil effect land, water, and air. This 6th grade and its going to be a powerpoint. Someone please help me. What are the damages. I'm going to have three slides of info for water, land, and air. Those three.

Answer 1

This is for crude oil rather than refined oil product, as refined oil comes in so very many flavors as to make any response from me big enough for a whole darned book.

For Water, all crude oil floats on water.  Even a small amount will spread over a large area (one quart/liter will cover a football field with at least a heavy sheen (rainbow-colored puddle on the surface of the water - you've seen them in rain puddles in parking lots)).  The best way to get rid of oil in the water is to allow the sun and water action to degrade it away (see below).

Oil effects birds as answered before.  Since it floats on water, it keeps oxygen from getting into the water, which can kill fish - and then if a fish actually gets oil on it, it is toxic and can kill them almost immediately.  Since oil floats on water, wind and current can take it miles and miles away from where it was spilled, so it can effect lots of area - and lots of fish and birds.  Oil on water can degrade (rot) and be gone within a couple days to weeks.  Also, oil does evaporate a little, so between evaporation and being mixed with water, it actually rots and goes away.

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With oil on land, there isn't a whole lot that can be done other than picking up the oily dirt.  The oil will sink down into the ground until it hits the water table... and then the oil will continue to flow as if it's on a lake or ocean.  Oil will coat sand and rocks, then can end up sticking there for quite some time before it "goes away."  Since oil is toxic, it can end up killing small critters that live in the dirt the same way it kills fish and birds.  Oil in dirt can stay there for years and years before it rots away.

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Oil doesn't impact air as much as it does with water or land.  Oil does give off vapors (it stinks like... oil!), so it will eventually evaporate a little bit... but it takes a very, very long time.  Usually, the stuff that burns easily will evaporate away (and be quite stinky), and the stuff that ends up being left behind is asphalt or tar - like you see on a road.

Since oil stinks so bad, most animals will stay away, but if the vapors are thick enough, small animals might asphyxiate, but not too many.

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Now, some fast facts:  

Oily dirt can be burned - and in lots of cases, clean-up folks will put the oily mess in big furnaces and burn it - then they can throw the cooked (and clean) sand that is left over and put it back on the ground.

Also, there are some REAL smart folks that have figured out that if you take oily sand and mix it with water, heat it up and mix it up, it turns into a rather good fertilizer - and can be squirted right onto farmers' fields to help crops grow.

Some folks think that if they use soap on oil that is on water, it "goes away."  It does - but not the way that they think.  Soap will change how the oil reacts with water and will make it sink to the bottom - where little single-celled water critters will eat it and die... and clams will suck it up and die... and other clams will suck up the dead single-celled critters and die... so using soap to get rid of oil is actually a BAD thing in most cases.

Answer 2

Effect of oil:-

- penetrates and opens up the structure of the plumage of birds, reducing its insulating ability, and so making the birds more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations and much less buoyant in the water.

- impairs birds' flight abilities, making it difficult or impossible to forage and escape from predators

- As they attempt to preen, birds typically ingest oil that coats their feathers, causing kidney damage, altered liver function, and digestive tract irritation.

- limited foraging ability quickly causes dehydration and metabolic imbalances.

- birds will die unless there is human intervention.

- Marine mammals exposed to oil spills are affected in similar ways as seabirds.

- Oil coats the fur of Sea otters and seals, reducing its insulation abilities and leading to body temperature fluctuations and hypothermia. Ingestion of the oil causes dehydration and impaired digestion