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Deepwater Detective

WHOI marine chemist Chris Reddy holds a piece of debris found in 2011 on the Chandeleur Islands off the coast of Louisiana. It was one of many that began appearing in 2010 on coastal beaches in Louisiana and Alabama coated with oil. Reddy’s lab used comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography to determine the oil on the debris was a match for that sampled directly from the broken pipe at the Macondo well below the Deepwater Horizon rig. With additional detective work, Reddy and WHOI researcher Catherine Carmichael traced the source of the debris to the rig and to the explosion that blew it apart. (Photo by Catherine Carmichael, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)