Dispersing the Damage

Dispersants are used to break up large amounts of oil into smaller droplets to be more easily and naturally processed.  In a Popular Science article, it stated that “Smaller, dispersed droplets are less threatening for two reasons: they present more surface area to the water, so ocean bacteria can degrade the oil faster; plus, the small droplets are much slower to rise to the surface, keeping the oil at sea instead of in coastal wetlands and giving the bacteria more time to do their magic.”  It also explains that the natural current of the ocean in necessary for these dispersants to circulate and fragment the oil into droplets.  This article also compares how the dispersants react with the oil to soap used to clean an oily measuring cup; the soap acts as the dispersant to break up the oil into smaller globules on the cup to then be more effectively cleaned off. 

To give a better understanding of how this applies to the Gulf oil spill, I have found an informative video.  This video illustrates how oil dispersants are dispersed and how they work with oil to clean up the floating oil as a result of an oil spill.