Gulf Mystery

Gulf Oil Mystery: Where Did It Go?

Four million barrels can't be found.

In May, BP's Tony Hayward was mocked for his comment that "the Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean," and it would take care of some of the oil spill naturally. Now it seems the embattled CEO might have been right. Fourteen days since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig has been capped, up to 4 million barrels of oil, a large majority of the spill, hasn't been accounted for by government statistics. Some, nature might have taken care of; others may have left the water to pollute Gulf Coast air and landfills. More may be floating in the water, creating toxic underwater clouds, according to the Washington Post. "That stuff's somewhere," said one local scientist. "It's going to be with us for a while. I'm worried about some habitats being exposed chronically to low concentrations of toxins... If the water's contaminated, the animals are going to be contaminated."