ChartsBin.com
With the Deepwater Horizon oil spill spewing out of control in the Gulf of Mexico, ChartsBin put together a map showing the largest recorded oil spills since 1901.
According to their research, an oil well in Kern County blew in the early 1900s, creating a gusher of oil that wasn't under control for 18 months. They didn't find a bigger spill.
"(It was) the most productive single oil well in California. It was an immense out-of-control pressurized oil well resulting in what is regarded as the largest oil spill in history, lasting 18 months and releasing 9,000,000 barrels of crude oil when it was first tapped in 1909," according to the note field in their data.
They note that oil spills didn't receive much attention until an oil tanker ran aground near England in 1967, so there the possibility exists that other, bigger spills occurred but were not recorded.
The New York Times called it "the largest oil-well blowout in American history" and the Los Angeles Times noted that human efforts failed to stop the gusher:
'Finally on Sept. 9, 1911, thousands of feet below the surface, the well caved in and sealed itself. It 'died as suddenly as it was born,' wrote author William Rintoul.There had been no flood or fire. And no one was killed, though the long-term effects on the health of the workers were never studied (some complained of skin problems).
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