Where Is the Oil? At the Bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, Scientists Say

(Sept. 13) -- The oil many thought had evaporated or dispersed into the Gulf of Mexico is instead resting on the seafloor, scientists say.

Researchers say they've found a thick layer of oil, likely from the BP spill, covering wide swaths of the bottom of the gulf.

"We're finding it everywhere that we've looked. The oil is not gone," professor Samantha Joye of the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Georgia, told ABC News. "It's in places where nobody has looked for it."

his undated handout photo provided by Samantha Joye, UGA Department of Marine Sciences, shows a layer of oil on a sediment core.

Samantha Joye, AP

A layer of oil is shown on a sediment core. Oil can be found "all over the place" on the Gulf of Mexico seafloor, some as much as 2 inches thick, University of Georgia professor Samantha Joye says.

Joye, who is studying the impact of the spill from the research vessel Oceanus, said the oil is as much as 2 inches thick in some areas. It can be found as far as 16 miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, she added.

"I've collected literally hundreds of sediment cores from the Gulf of Mexico, including around this area. And I've never seen anything like this," Joye told NPR today.

The oil could have serious implications for creatures who rely on oxygen and sediments from the seafloor to survive, said Alice Alldredge of the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

She told AOL News that there is already a lack of oxygen in the gulf due to the oil-eating bacteria. "This could have a smothering effect," Alldredge said. "Oil is toxic. Many organisms are not capable of surviving in toxic environments."

Millions of barrels of crude have been emptied into the gulf since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and set off the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. Much of the crude was consumed by a naturally occurring, oil-eating bacteria.

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But the oil sheen disappeared from the water's surface just months after the well was capped, leading many scientists to wonder if oil had become suspended in giant plumes in the water column or had been dispersed by chemicals. Others declared the substance all but vanquished. In August, Carol Browner, a White House energy adviser, said that "the vast majority of the oil is gone."

The mystery may be over, however. Scientists now say that much of the oil from the BP spill is very likely on the gulf floor. In August, researchers from the University of South Florida found evidence that the crude may have come to rest on the bottom of the gulf as well, according to a report in NPR.

"We have to [chemically] fingerprint it and link it to the Deepwater Horizon," Joye told NPR. "But the sheer coverage here is leading us all to come to the conclusion that it has to be sedimented oil from the oil spill, because it's all over the place."