article_snippet.sent: For 87 straight days, oil and methane gas spewed from an uncapped wellhead, 1 mile below the surface of the ocean.
article_snippet.sent: But perhaps the greatest unknown is what, if anything, millions of gallons of oil on the deep seafloor are doing to the overall environment of the Gulf of Mexico.
article_snippet.sent: Oceanographers have been tracking the residue from the Macondo well as the residue has settled on the bottom of the ocean.
article_snippet.sent: Mandy Joye, an oceanographer with the University of Georgia, has used underwater robots to capture soil samples and run tests to determine just how far the oil has traveled.
article_snippet.sent: Her research and other studies show BP's oil is scattered in patches across more than 1,200 square miles of the seafloor.
article_snippet.sent: According to Joye's study the residue exists in thin layers in some areas of the seafloor and thick pockets in others.
article_snippet.sent: Joye is trying to determine how the oil deposited on the seafloor -- estimated to be about 10 million gallons -- affects the microbial community of organisms that exists in the ocean.