Assessing the source of oil deposited in the surface sediment of Mormugao Port, Goa - A case study of MV Qing incident

Suneel, V.; Saha, Mahua; Rathore, Chayanika; Sequeira, Jenica; Mohan, P.M Nikhil; Ray, Durbar; Veerasingam, S.; Rao, V Trinadha; Vethamony, P.

Assessing the source of oil deposited in the surface sediment of Mormugao Port, Goa - A case study of MV Qing incident

2019

In June 2016, a cruise vessel was grounded in the Mormugao Port, resulting in unnoticed oil spill. The surface water and sediment samples were collected from the vicinity of the ship, and also an oil sample from the ship (OIL). These samples were subject to petroleum biomarker such as pentacyclic triterpenes (hopanes) and compound specific carbon isotopic (δ¹³C) analyses to assess the source of hydrocarbon pollution in the Mormugao Port. While no clear trend was observed in water samples, the bottom surface sediments did show an identical pattern of hopanes with the oil. The chemometric analyses of hopane Diagnostic Ratios (DRs) and δ¹³C ratios confirmed the ship oil as the source of oil pollution in sediments. Whereas the water is comparatively more dynamic than the sediment, the physical processes arising out of winds, waves, tides and currents might have dispersed the oil away from the grounded ship.

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