If you’re not watching Rachel, watch the repeat in an hour. She’s covering the 1979 Ixtap(sp?) well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico and how it parallels today’s well disaster…everything, down to the ‘loop current’, underwater plumes of oil, the “sombrero” (aka Top Hat), a ‘junk shot’ and injecting mud and concrete (aka Top Kill), etc…and none of it worked. It took nine months to get two relief wells in to drop pressure enough to cap the well (10,000 to 30,000 barrels a day gushing then, just like now).

The only difference? That well was in 210 feet of water, not 5,000.