Simulation of the movement and dispersion of oil slicks in the Arabian Gulf

Abstract

The extensive oil drilling and transportation activities in the Arabian Gulf increased the possibility of oil spills and the consequent threat of oil pollution to the regional ecology. The available literature concerning the main aspects of the physical oceanographic characteristics affecting the movement and spreading of oil spill in the Gulf are reviewed. It is concluded that evaporation, wind-driven currents, and sandfall are important as weathering processes, while tidal currents cause lateral spreading of the slick. Oil spill modelling has shown some usefulness in estimating the trajectories of few major spills illustrated by reference to three models developed for the Gulf. The performance of these models, their capabilities and limitations are reviewed. Recommendations are made to gather more data on the behavior of oil spills in this particular environment.

The circulation of the Persian Gulf: a numerical study

“…Amplitudes and phases of the four major tidal constituents, M2, S2, O1, and K1, are prescribed as constant values along the eastern open-ocean boundary (Table 2). Co-amplitudes and co-phases (not shown) predicted for each of the above tidal constituents in the Persian Gulf differ by less than 10% compared with previous simulations (Landner et al, 1982;Le-Provost, 1984;El-Shabh and Murty, 1988;Bashir et al, 1989;Protor et al, 1994;Najafi, 1997). In the context of this work, we take this as an accurately enough representation of tides in the Persian Gulf.…”

On the spatial structure and time evolution of shamal winds over the Arabian Sea – a case study through numerical modelling

“…There are a few studies on the onset, duration and strength of the shamal winds over the Arabian Peninsula (Ali, ), and their influence on oceanic waves and meteorological conditions over the Arabian/Persian Gulf (Hubert et al , ). The shamal winds are strong enough to generate storm surges (El‐Sabh and Murty, ), oil spills (Murty and El‐Sabh, ; El‐Sabh and Murty, ) and dust storms (Perrone, ; El‐Sabh and Murty, ; Walters and Sjoberg, ). On the basis of duration, winter shamals can be divided as those which lasts between 24 and 36 hours (more frequent) and those which lasts between 3 and 5 days (once or twice every year) (Hubert et al , , Perrone, ).…”

Storm surges in the Arabian Gulf

“…As shown by several authors (e.g. Murty and EI-Sabh, 1985;E1-Sabh and Murty, 1988), tidal motion may disperse the slick somewhat, but most of the movement is due to the winds and storm surges associated with the Shamal. It is the wind stress that is overwhelmingly responsible for generating storm surges in the Arabian Gulf.…”