Louisiana Environmental Action Network

On August 13, 2011 "tar logs" were collected by LEAN members from the shore of Ship Island off the coast of Mississippi. The tar logs, as they are being called, are brick sized globs of petroleum hydrocarbons that have been rolled into a cylindrical "log" shape by wave action. Samples of the tar logs were sent to a commercial laboratory for analysis.

Ship Island is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore and is a popular destination for tourism and recreation. The tar logs could be found every few feet along the high tide line of the beach.

Analyses were performed of the tar log samples. The components of the tar logs consisted of fresh crude oil. The components matched the oil in samples collected on Brenton Island, Louisiana by the Lower Mississippi River Keeper, Paul Orr, in March 2011. The components of the tar logs also matched the oil in samples collected from Horn Island, Mississippi during the summer of 2011.

The tar log sample had an alkanes profile similar to that of the BP crude from the Macondo well. A copy of the tar log sample histogram is presented below.

Alkane histogram for the tar log sample.

The tar log material burned when ignited.

A golf ball sized lump of tar log burning.