BP's cataclysmic oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico finally got some sensors put on it (at least, on the gusher they're showing us), so we should finally get a clearer idea of the magnitude of Spillzilla so far.
As we all know, BP has been lying incessantly about their gusher. First, they said it was only 1,000 barrels per day. Then, after considerable arm-twisting, they grudgingly admitted that their catastrophic gusher might be spewing crude oil at a rate as high as 5,000 barrels per day.
Today, a month and a half after the initial disastrous explosions, BP has been forced to acknowledge that its gusher is rocketing crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate at least of 20,000 barrels per day, even as high as 40,000 barrels per day.
Of course, independent scientists monitoring the size of the oil slick (and the massive underwater plumes whose existence BP denied until just recently), have estimated an uncontrolled gusher rocketing crude oil at a rate as high as 160,000 barrels of oil per day. I even heard an estimate as high as 180,000 barrels per day.
Time for guessing! Before the newly installed sensors tell their tale, see if you can figure out the rate of BP's uncontrolled crude oil gusher that's completely wiping all life out in the Gulf of Mexico. There is no prize for being right, but you'll have the private satisfaction of knowing that your guess was better than other people's, even though that won't save a single bird, fish or other animal that is doomed die in a quagmire of reeking, toxic, heavy crude oil.