The Unprecedented East China Sea Oil Spill

"

Chinese authorities & environmentalists are trying to understand the environmental threat posed by the million barrels of hydrocarbons that the tanker the Sanchi was carrying, which was not crude oil, but rather condensate, a liquid by-product of natural gas & other oil production.There has never been a condensate spill like this. Crude is a liquid you can pump. Condensate, on the other hand, is a gas amid the heat and pressure down there. Bring it up to the surface and it condenses into liquid. That mix is  not very water soluble, highly flammable, much lighter, which means it is going to rise to the surface after it is leaked.  In the best-case scenario, the fuel will come to the surface in a slick that is massive but thousandths-of-millimeters thin which would evaporate  or become an “invisible, subsurface toxic plume that is spreading outward from the site.”