SCIENCE

The videos were shot by 14 remotely operated underwater vehicles. The video feed of oil gushing from the blowout more than a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico has become the iconic image of the disaster. But Wereley says the videos offer much more than a cursory view of the spill.

An underwater video from the Deepwater Horizon oil platform shows a stationary screw from the facility. Purdue will release more than 30,000 hours of the videos, many of which were previously unseen by anyone other than staff members of BP or the U.S. Coast Guard. The videos are available at the website OilSpillHub.org. (Purdue University image)

"Researchers can use tools we are developing, such as photogrammetry tools, to learn much more about what happened and what we can do to stop it if this were to occur again," he said. "These tools will allow us to conduct empirical investigations into the event. Users of the hub will even be able to submit their own tools and materials for distribution on the hub."

The videos are being provided to Purdue by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which is chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and by Chairman Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and the Energy and Environment Subcommittee in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"This video archive will preserve the tragedy of this spill and turn it into a positive educational tool for professors and the public. These videos, which were available as part of the investigative work of Congress, are an important asset to scientists, engineers, educators and anyone who hopes to have a better understanding of the environmental disaster," Markey said. "These videos become an important resource for both researchers working to develop solutions to future events and for members of the public who hope to have a better understanding of what happened."

To date there have been approximately 30,000 hours of video archived from the underwater cameras.