On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank into the ocean.  Although the tragedy that day was the 11 rig workers that were killed and the 17 were injured, a much darker reality was bubbling just below the surface.

The resulting fire on the oil rig could not be extinguished and subsequently sank into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving one of the deepest oil wells untapped and uncontrolled. In the days after, reports of oil appearing in the Gulf of Mexico and washing up on shore started to trickle in, and soon the world would watch as the worst oil spill in U.S. history unfolded.

The weeks and months following this snafu has been filled with fear and confusion.  There has been no official comment on why the Deepwater Horizon rig’s safety features failed. Also, there were conflicting reports of how much oil was being leaked.  Some early predictions put the oil being spewed from the leaking well at about 10,000-50,000 gallons a day, now the estimates are closer to 500,000 to 1 million gallons a day. Roughly 22 million gallons of oil have been released, and much to the chagrin of summer vacationers, is heading for some beaches in between eastern Louisiana and Florida’s Pan Handle area.

But aside from the rampant devastation of the Gulf of Mexico’s marine life and hundreds of species on the coastal areas of the Gulf, the question remains why did the rig explode? There were a series of safety failures that had to happen before the rig got to the point where it reached a critical state and exploded.

For most people this explosion and subsequent spill cements the idea that off-shore oil rigs are disasters waiting to happen. Much like the Valdez oil disaster, human error has led to another ecological nightmare. But this shouldn’t dampen our spirits when it comes to oil.

“There are a little under 4,000 operating oil and gas rigs existing and operating in the Gulf at the moment and yesterday most of them did not explode,” said Michael Hardwick, a petroleum safety engineer.

Considering how many oil and gas rigs are in the Gulf of Mexico, one explosion does not represent the entire industry. The chances of a similar disaster happening again are so remote. There are about 200 to 250 safety measures that help prevent an accident like this, topped off with the blowout preventer.

The blowout preventer is the final fail safe against an explosion such as this. The blowout preventer is essentially a hydraulic pump that cuts off the drill pipe completely with a slicing motion. The blowout preventer in the case of the Deepwater Horizon rig was malfunctioning at the moment it was activated by the rig workers as they were being evacuated, which led to the final explosion that sank the rig.

The blowout preventer from the Deepwater Horizon rig will be retrieved and tested at the surface to ascertain the exact reason why it failed. But as was stated earlier, these safety features do not give out often and the blowout preventer does not often fail, as evidenced by all other functioning oil rigs.

The Deepwater Horizon explosion was a disaster. Already lives have been lost and the damage that is being done to the coastal areas will take weeks if not months to repair.  Although recent cap and containment procedures are proving effective, there is still oil seeping into our ocean.

But even in the face of this calamity it is important not to over-react. Accidents will happen, and that is no reason to stop pursuing endeavors that help humanity. We as Americans need to pick ourselves up from this oily mess, shake off and look toward the future.