Oil Makes Landfall as BP Preps Containment Dome

A sheen of oil from the BP spill has made its first confirmed landfall, washing ashore an uninhabited island beach in Louisiana. The most recent projections by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show oil sheen and tarballs—not necessarily the brunt of the oil slick, but rather a less-toxic runoff—threatening the Mississippi barrier islands over the next 72 hours. As was reported yesterday, the oil slick is predicted to move westward, and will likely reach coastal areas west of the Mississippi River soon.

As projections and reports continue to track the movement of the oil slick, BP engineers are preparing to lower a massive metal dome into the ocean in an effort to contain the oil that is still leaking from a cracked underwater well. Weighing in at 98 tons, the giant chamber is designed to trap the leaking oil and route it to a drilling ship on the water's surface. Officials hope the contraption will stop the oil slick from expanding any further, a very real threat considering there are still thousands of gallons of oil in the sunken rig that could spill into the ocean.

BP says the dome could go into operation as early as Monday, but the device has never been used in water as deep as the Gulf Coast so there's no guarantee it will work. Here's hoping it does.  

(See our gallery of robots doing dirty, dangerous cleanup work, here.)