For the past three months, hundreds of people from across the country have been working to help deal with the damage caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
For 11 days in June and July, Matt Corbett was one of those people.
Corbett, an Earth and atmospheric sciences graduate student at U. Nebraska-Lincoln, worked on the Development Driller III helping examine soil samples as part of an internship with Bugware, Inc. a Florida-based biostratigraphy company.
The Development Driller III was one of two ultra-deepwater drilling rigs working to create relief wells to siphon off some of the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.
Corbett has been working on his doctorate at UNL since graduating from Northwestern University, when he was introduced to the school by David Watkins, chairman of Earth and atmospheric sciences at UNL. Watkins met Corbett at a geology conference, and convinced him to join UNL’s geosciences program.
“The program offers a lot of great opportunities like this internship Matt got,” Watkins said.
While on the rig, Corbett worked as a sample catcher, collecting rock and soil samples brought up while the rig drilled. Geologists then examined the samples, looking for things like microfossils embedded in the rocks which they could use to date the samples or determine what type of formation they came from.
Once the samples had been properly classified, scientists onboard the rig could use the information to determine how close they were to the oil reserves.
“At Nebraska we use these samples for paleoceanography research to help better understand climate change and evolutionary patterns,” Corbett said. “Based on numbers and where they are found, these little critters in the rock provide clues about what happened in the past.”
After the accident on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that caused the massive oil leak, Corbett said safety was a key concern during his time on the Development Driller III. Safety guidelines were so strict Corbett couldn’t even bring a camera on the rig’s deck because of the possibility the flash could ignite gases that may have been released.
“Everyone there is taking this really seriously,” he said. “They’re working to get all this done as quickly and as safe as possible.”
Corbett said being out on the rig during an event that has become such a huge part of the media and people’s everyday lives recently was a surreal experience, and not quite what he expected.
“You usually picture these rigs out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing but ocean,” he said. “But there I was walking around with buckets of rock, flares burning in the background with boats and other rigs all around.”
Corbett will continue to work with Bugware until December, but he was unsure if he’d be returning to the Development Driller III during that time. Even if he doesn’t make it back on the rig, Corbett said he’s happy to have been able to help out with the oil spill.
“I’m at the bottom rung in this relief effort, but I was glad to get out there and do my little bit,” he said.