OIL POLLUTION IN PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, ALASKAKeith A. Kvenvolden
Photo of tanker oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez supertanker grounded on Bligh Reef, spilling 11 million gallons of Alaskan North Slope crude oil into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound on the southern coast of Alaska. Shorelines within the western and southern parts of the Sound and in the Gulf of Alaska as far west as Kodiak Island were polluted with oil.
Starting in 1990 and continuing in 1992-94 the USGS (Western Marine and Coastal Geology Branch) collected and analyzed oil-like residues from shorelines throughout the northern, western, and southern parts of the Sound. These studies of oil residues led to a surprising observation--not all of the oil residues came from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. A significant portion of the collected oil residues had chemical signatures typical of crude oil produced from the Miocene Monterey Formation of California! How did California oil products find their way into Prince William Sound? By examining the geographic distribution of oil residues having a California signature, it was discovered that these oil residues resulted from the spillage of stored oil products that had been shipped to Alaska for use as fuel and paving material. The spillage took place on March 27, 1964, during the Great Alaska Earthquake. The quake and subsequent tsunami destroyed asphalt and crude oil storage facilities owned by Standard Oil Company of California, and the oil products spilled into Prince William Sound, leaving oil residues on its shorelines. These oil residues went unrecognized for more than 25 years. This environmental forensic study received widespread attention in the media and is often offered in academic settings as a clear example of the effects of environmental pollution, past and present.
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