Barataria Bay 2011 Oil Composition Total Aliphatic Hydrocarbons

One and a half years after the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill a set of subtidal and intertidal marsh sediment cores were collected in Barataria Bay, Louisiana an area known to be impacted by the spill. These cores were analyzed to determine the concentration and if the source of the hydrocarbon was the DWH oil spill based on chemical fingerprinting. An archived core, collected before the DWH oil spill from the same area, was also analyzed to assess the background hydrocarbon composition of the area. In addition pre-spill concentrations were assessed based on deeper core sections. The analyses included total aliphatic hydrocarbons. The overall objective was to see if sediments were contaminated with DWH oil, how much and how these concentrations compared to concentrations in this area before the DWH oil spill. Additional data can be found in GRIIDC datasets R1.x137.000:0012, R1.x137.000:0014, R1.x137.000:0015, and R1.x137.000:0016.