NASA Earth Observatory MODIS image: Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

The oil slick, which resulted from the accident at the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, lingered near the Mississippi Delta on May 1, 2010.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image the same day.

The oil slick appears as a tangle of dull gray on the ocean surface, made visible to the satellite sensor by the Sun’s reflection on the ocean surface. Most of the oil slick occurs southeast of the Mississippi Delta.

An April 20 explosion at the rig led to a leak of crude oil at the sea floor, roughly 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the ocean surface, where intense pressure impedes most mitigation efforts.

The New York Times reported that bad weather further hampered cleanup efforts as Gulf Coast communities braced for arrival of the oil along the shore. As much as 210,000 gallons (790,000 liters) of crude oil a day were leaking into the Gulf at the beginning of May, and that amount might increase.