Abstract
ABSTRACT Field studies on a remote, sheltered gravel beach have monitored the fate of 15 m3 of aged medium crude oil that was released onto the water surface and allowed to strand. The initial volume of oil (5.3 m3) retained on the shore in August 1981 was reduced to 1.3 m3 by August 1985, but oil that had been contained within an intertidal asphalt pavement remained relatively unweathered. By 1985, the pavement accounted for almost 30% of the oil remaining on the beach, even though it covered only 5% of the contaminated area. Oil-in-sediment concentrations remained high in the pavement samples (19,000 mg/kg); elsewhere on the beach, the concentrations in surface sediment samples ranged between 50 and 4,000 mg/kg, and the oils had undergone considerably greater evaporative weathering and biodegradation.
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