BP Deepwater Horizon Spill 2010
The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 began when a blowout preventer failed on the offshore drilling rig, causing an explosion that killed 11 workers and injured 17 others. The rig sank two days later, unleashing nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days. It became the worst marine oil spill in U.S. history and caused billions in environmental and economic damage.
In the chaos, BP even consulted nuclear physicists, including hydrogen bomb designer Richard Garwin, after some argued that a small nuclear detonation might seal the well. The aftermath was staggering. In heavily oiled areas, half the shrimp appeared without eyes or eye sockets, and flesh-eating bacteria surged in the Gulf. Yet, thousands of hairstylists and alpaca farmers stepped up, donating over 19 warehouses of cut hair to create booms that absorbed oil (human hair can soak up three to nine times its own weight in crude).