Responding to Spills

January 24, 2022

Adapted from NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration

Larger oil spills are a hazard for people and wildlife. Spilled oil must be removed from the environment. Emergency response teams are called in to do the work. There are several ways to clean up oil spills. This diagram explains four of them.

1. Shoreline Flushing

Hoses rinse oil from the shore. The oil is washed into the water. It’s more easily collected there.

2. Booms

Booms are floating barriers. They are used to stop oil from spreading on the water’s surface.

3. Sorbents

Sorbents act like sponges. They absorb oil but do not pick up water.

4. Burning

Newly spilled oil can be set on fire. This helps remove the oil that is floating on the water.

Holidays

A Spring Festival

December 8, 2023

Happy Lunar New Year! About 2 billion people celebrate the holiday. They are all over the world. Most of them are in Asian countries. The lunar year begins with a new moon. There’s one in late January or early February.…

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Culture

Festival Foods

December 8, 2023

Food is an important part of Lunar New Year celebrations. Each country has its own holiday foods. Here’s a taste of some of them. Tangerines (above) are popular during Lunar New Year. The Chinese word for tangerine sounds similar to…

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World

Good Growing

November 30, 2023

Paula Costa is standing in a field of red dirt. It’s in São Paulo State, in Brazil. Once, there was forest here. It was cleared away years ago. Now the land is used for monoculture farming. That’s when only one…

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Environment

Jungle Layers

November 30, 2023

The rainforest is a wet, warm habitat. It’s home to many animals. There are four layers of the rainforest where these creatures live. The highest layer is the emergent layer. It is hot and sunny up here. Birds fly from…

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