Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Simulation of Trajectories of Tar Ball Transport to the Goa Coast

  • Published:
Water, Air, & Soil Pollution Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Arrival of tar balls to the Goa coast during pre- and southwest monsoon seasons has been a regular phenomenon in the past few years. In one such event, we observed tar ball deposits along the Goa coast during August 2010, April 2011 and May 2011 when no oil spill was reported in the Arabian Sea (AS). The only source for the formation of tar balls could be the spill/tanker-wash from the tankers passing through the international tanker routes across the AS. Assuming this, an attempt has been made to simulate surface winds, currents and tar ball trajectories for August 2010 using hydrodynamics and particle tracking models. Tar ball particles were released numerically at eight locations in the AS, and five of them reached the Goa coast, matching reasonably well with the observations. The present study confirms our view that the source of these tar balls is the accidental spills or tanker-wash along the international oil tanker route in the AS. A review of the global scenario of tar ball study is also presented in the Introduction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Al-Madfa, H., Abdel-Moati, M. A. R., & Al-Naama, A. (1999). Beach tar contamination on the Qatari Coastline of the Gulf. Environmental International, 25(4), 505–513.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous (1984). IOC manual for monitoring oil and dissolved/dispersed petroleum hydrocarbons in marine waters and on beaches. Manuals and Guides, No. 13.

  • Anonymous (2010). Times of India newspaper 31 August 2010 Goa edition.

  • Butler, J. N. (1975). Evaporating weathering of petroleum residues, the age of pelagic tar. Marine Chemistry, 3, 9–21.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, J. N. (1998). Beach tar on Bermuda: recent observations and implications or global monitoring. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 36(6), 458–463.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chandru, K., Zakaria, M. P., Anita, S., Shahbazi, A., Sakari, M., Bahry, P. S., & Mohamed, C. A. R. (2008). Characterization of alkanes, hopanes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in tar-balls collected from the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Marine Pollution Bulletin., 56, 950–962.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Corbin, C. J., Singh, J. G., & Ibiebele, D. D. (1993). Tar ball survey of six eastern Caribbean countries. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 26(9), 482–486.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cutler, A. N. & J. C. Swallow (1984). Surface currents of the Indian Ocean (To 25°S, 100°E). IOS Technical Report, Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, UK, 187 pp.

  • Dhargalkar, V. K., Kureishy, T. W., & Bhandare, M. V. (1977). Deposition of tar balls (Oil residue) on beaches along the west coast of India. Mahasagar: Bulletin of the National Institute of Oceanography, 10(3 & 4), 103–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dwivedi, S. N & A. H. Parulekar (1974). Oil pollution along the Indian coastline. NBS special publication. 409, Marine Pollution Monitoring (petroleum), Proceedings of a symposium and workshop held at NBS, Galthersburg, Maryland, May 13–17.

  • Eagle, G. A., Green, A., & Williams, J. (1979). Tar ball concentrations in the ocean around the Cape of Good Hope before and after a major oil spill. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 10(11), 321–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabche, C. E., Folack, J., & Yongbi, G. C. (1998). Tar ball levels on some beaches in Cameroon. Marine Pollution Bulletin., 36(7), 535–539.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Georges, C., & Oostdam, B. L. (1983). The characteristics and dynamics of tar Pollution on the Beaches of Trinidad and Tobago. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 14(5), 170–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilliam, R. C., & Pleim, J. E. (2010). Performance assessment of new land surface and planetary boundary layer physics in the WRF-ARW. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 49, 760–774.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golik, A. (1982). The distribution and behavior of tar balls along the Israeli coast. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 15(3), 267–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hastenrath, S., & Greischar, L. (1991). The monsoonal current regimes of the tropical Indian Ocean Observed surface flow fields and their geostropic and wind-driven components. Journal of Geophysical Research., 96, 12619–12633.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heaton, M. G, Wilke R. J., Bowman M. J. (1980). Formation of tar balls in a simulated oceanic front. The Texas Journal of Science XXXII, No.3, September, 1980.

  • Holdway, P. (1986). A circumnavigation survey of marine tar. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 17(8), 374–377.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kadam, A. N. (1988). Some studies on tar pellets at Veraval Coast (Gujarat). Mahasagar, Bulletin of National Institute of Oceanography, 21, 173–175.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kadam, A. N., & Rokade, M. A. (1996). Source identification of tar residue from Mumbai beach. Indian Journal of Marine Science, 25, 379–380.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kaladharan, P., Prema, D., Nandakumar, A., & Valsala, K. K. (2004). Occurrence of tar ball and waste material on the beaches along Kerala coast in India. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India, 46(1), 93–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kornilios, S., Drakopoulos, P. G., & Dounas, C. (1998). Pelagic tar, dissolved/dispersed petroleum hydrocarbons, and plastic distribution in the Cretan Sea, Greece. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 36(12), 989–993.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, Y., & Colle, B. A. (2011). A new bulk microphysical scheme that includes riming intensity and temperature-dependent ice characteristics. Monthly Weather Review, 139, 1013–1035.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nair, A., Devassy, V. P., Dwivedi, S. N., & Selvakumar, R. A. (1972). Tar ball pollution in Central west coast of India. Current Science, 41, 766–767.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nemirovskaya, A. (2011). Tar balls in Baltic Sea Beaches. Water Resources, 38(3), 315–323.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nesterova, M. P., Mochalova, O. S., & Mamayev, A. B. (1983). Transformation of oil-in-water emulsion into solid Tar balls in the Sea. Oceanology, 23(6), 454–461.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okera, W. (1974). Tar pollution of Sierra Leone beaches. Nature, 252, 682.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oostdam, B. L. (1984). Tar pollution of beaches in the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea and the South Pacific Ocean. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 15, 267–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pleim, J. E. (2007). A combined local and non-local closure model for the atmospheric boundary layer: Part 1. Model description and testing. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 46, 1383–1395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Price, A. R. G., & Nelson-Smith, A. (1986). Observations on surface pollution in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea during the Sindbad Voyage (1980–1981). Marine Pollution Bulletin, 17(2), 60–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qasim, S. Z. (1975). Oil pollution of the seas around India. Journal of the Institution of Marine Technologists, 19(2), 15–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reddy, C. V. G., & Singbal, S. Y. S. (1973). Chemical characteristics of tar like material found on the beaches along the east and west coast of India in relation to their source of horizon. Current Science, 42(20), 709–711.

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta, R., & Kureishy, T. W. (1981). Present state of oil pollution in the northern Indian Ocean. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 12(9), 295–301.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta, R., & Qasim, S. Z. (1982). Oil pollution studies in northern Indian Ocean. Petroleum Asia Journal. Vol, 5, 34–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta, R., Fondekar, S. P., & Alagarsamy, R. (1993). State of oil pollution in the northern Arabian Sea after the 1991 Gulf oil spill. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 27, 85–91.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shankar, D., Vinayachandran, P. N., & Unnikrishnan, A. S. (2002). The monsoon currents in the north Indian Ocean. Progress in Oceanography, 52, 63–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shannon, L. V., Chapman, P., Eagle, G. A., & McClurg, T. P. (1983). A comparative study of tar ball distribution and movement in two boundary current regimes: implications for oiling of beaches. Oil and Petrochemical Pollution, 1(4), 243–259.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, D. G., & Mapes, G. A. (1979). Surface circulation and the distribution of pelagic tar and plastic. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 10(6), 160–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sindhu, B., Suresh, I., Unnikrishnan, A. S., Bhatkar, N. V., Neetu, S., & Michael, G. S. (2007). Improved bathymetric datasets for the shallow water regions in the Indian Ocean. Journal of Earth System Science, 166(3), 261–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skamarock, W. C., Klemp, J. B., Dudhia, J., Gill, D. O. ,Barker D. M.; Duda M. G., Huang, W., Wang, X-Y, Powers, J. G. (2008). A description of the advanced research WRF Version 3. Tech. Note 475 + STR. National Center for Atmospheric Research: Boulder, USA.

  • Sontro, T. S. D., Leifer, I., Luyendyk, B. P., & Broitman, B. R. (2007). Beach tar accumulation, transportation mechanisms, and sources of variability at coal oil point, California. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 54(9), 1461–1471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suneel, V., Vethamony, P., Zakaria, M. P., Naik, B. G., & Prasad, K. V. S. R. (2013). Identification of sources of tar balls deposited along the Goa coast, India, using fingerprinting techniques. Mar. Pollut. Bull. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.02.015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsouk, E., Amir, S., & Goldsmith, V. (1985). Natural self-cleaning of oil-polluted beaches by waves. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 16(1), 11–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, C. S., Green, D. R., & Cretney, W. J. (1973). Quantitative tar and plastic waste distribution in the Pacific Ocean. Nature, 247, 30–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, C. S., Green, D. R., & Creetney, W. J. (1976). Distribution and source of tar on the Pacific Ocean. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 7(6), 102–106.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zakaria, M. P., Okuda, T., & Takada, H. (2001). Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) and hopane in stranded Tar balls on the coast of peninsular Malaysia: applications of biomarkers for identifying sources of oil pollution. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 42(12), 1357–1366.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

We thank the director of the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, for providing the facilities that allowed us to carry out this work. We are grateful to the CSIR for providing Senior Research Fellowship to Mr. V. Suneel. Thanks are due to Mr. K. Sudheesh for his valuable suggestions regarding the model. We also thank Mr. J. Laxmikant for his help during the course of fieldwork. This is NIO contribution no. 5356.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, 403004, India

    V. Suneel, P. Vethamony, K. Vinod Kumar & M. T. Babu

  2. Department of Meteorology and Oceanography, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, 530 003, India

    K. V. S. R. Prasad

Authors
  1. V. Suneel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. P. Vethamony
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. K. Vinod Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. M. T. Babu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. K. V. S. R. Prasad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. Vethamony.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Suneel, V., Vethamony, P., Kumar, K.V. et al. Simulation of Trajectories of Tar Ball Transport to the Goa Coast. Water Air Soil Pollut 224, 1538 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1538-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1538-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation