so... about the gusher...

[nebenaube]

Couldn't somebody mount a containment dome under a sub and then just park the sub on the bottom over the BOP?

[Statistical]

1. Other than that extemely high pressure thing. Sure.

The upward pressure of the oil is at least 13,000 psi. BP hasn't released any data so likely the reality is much much much worse. Maybe 20,000 psi, maybe 40,000 psi.

Still lets go with "just" 13,000 psi of upward pressure. The pipe has about 400 inch cross section. Thats about 5.2 million pounds of force. Would simply force the dome/sub off the surface far enough to allow oil to flow out the bottom.

Still imagine you could force the dome to stay into place. Remember the bottom of ocean isn't rock or concrete it is silt, about 100ft of silt. Containment dome fills with oil, then it filters through the silt and leaks out around the dome.

If you cant stop oil inside the pipe (where it is contained) then best option is to siphon it. Fluids always move to lowest pressure so if it is "easier" to flow up to a ship than into ocean (and against 2500 psi of water) then it will. Simple physics.

[nebenaube]

3. So...

the only thing holding the BOP down is the fact that it's attached to the pipe in the ground?

[Statistical]

5. Yeah... a couple miles of pipe which weighs thousands of tons.

Which is why breaking the BOP or worse the connection where BOP attaches to the pipe would be an irreversible disaster.

[lunatica]

8. Thanks for your explanation!

There's so much knowledge on DU! You make us all smarter. I think my IQ just went up a little.

[On the Road]

2. I Don't Believe the Navy

has submarines that can go to that depth. The vessels that can operate at 5,000 feet, like the ROVs, are built small, and can carry limited weights.

The leak is about 10,000 psi according to the Oil Drum discussions. It is likely that any cap or dome carried by a submarine would be too small and would get blown away by the pressure.

The surface ships are several orders of magnitude larger -- that's why they were used to lower the top hat.

[mochajava666]

6. I heard from some military guy being interviewed about subs

and he said the military only has 2 subs that go that deep and they aren't equipped with modifications needed to fix drilling equipment.

[lunatica]

4. Seawolf submarines have an estimated crush depth of about 2400 feet

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-deepest-depth-a-submarine-can-go.htm

[Ganja Ninja]

7. Why would they need a sub?

The containment dome can be placed over the leak all by itself. The reason it doesn't work is because at that depth (pressure) and temperature the natural gas freezes into ice and fills the dome making it useless. A sub wouldn't change that.

[nebenaube]

9. I only suggested that because a sub

would be heavy enough to hold the cap down...