The US’s worst ever oil spill, at a BP rig a decade ago, may have been almost a third larger than previously thought.
十年前發生在英國石油(BP)鑽井平臺的美國有史以來最嚴重的漏油事件，可能比之前認為的規模大了近三分之一。
The finding, published today, comes as the oil giant launched a new bid to burnish its environmental credentials.
今天公佈的這一發現，正值這家石油巨頭髮起新的競標，以提高其在環境方面的信譽。
The Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 saw nearly 800 million litres of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, which satellite tracking suggested covered an estimated 149,000 square kilometres.
2010年的“深水地平線”災難導致近8億升石油流入墨西哥灣，衛星追蹤顯示，該海域覆蓋的面積估計為14.9萬平方公里。
But an analysis suggests that the real extent of the spill may have been 30 per cent greater, because much of the oil was invisible to satellites.
但一項分析表明，漏油的真實程度可能已經擴大了30%，因為衛星看不到很多石油。
The study also found that the oil extended much deeper than satellites had detected, with toxic concentrations 1.3 kilometres down.
研究還發現，石油延伸到比衛星探測到的更深的地方，有毒物質濃度下降了1.3公里。
A US team arrived at this estimate using data from 25,000 samples of water and sediment from the area, much of it only released in recent years by BP, in addition to satellite and aerial images.
一個美國團隊利用來自該地區的2.5萬個水和沉積物樣本的數據得出了這一估計，其中許多樣本是英國石油公司近年來才發佈的，此外還有衛星和航空圖像。
It used these to model how far the oil is likely to have spread, accounting for ocean currents, temperature and the biodegradation of oil.
它使用這些數據來模擬石油可能擴散的距離，考慮到洋流、溫度和石油的生物降解。
The results suggest the spill reached as far as the West Florida shelf, Texas shores and Florida Keys. “The environmental damage extends substantially beyond what was previously estimated both in space and time,” says Claire Paris-Limouzy at the University of Miami, Florida.
結果表明，洩漏延伸到了西佛羅里達大陸架、德克薩斯海岸和佛羅里達群島。佛羅里達州邁阿密大學的克萊爾·帕里斯-萊穆茲說：“環境損害大大超出了先前在空間和時間上的估計。”
While these previously undetected hydrocarbons weren’t picked up by satellites, they were found at levels “potentially lethal and sublethal” to marine organisms at different depths.
雖然這些以前未被探測到的碳氫化合物沒有被衛星探測到，但它們被發現在不同深度的海洋生物中處於“潛在致命性和亞致死性”的水平。
“The impact on marine life was, and still is, larger than expected,” says Paris-Limouzy.
“對海洋生物的影響過去和現在都比預期的要大，”Paris-Limouzy說。
The spill has been linked to deaths of dolphins, lobsters and smaller animals such as sea cucumbers.
漏油事件與海豚、龍蝦和海參等較小動物的死亡有關。
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