Valutazione delle conseguenze degli sversamenti accidentali di olio in mare

Oil spill is a leakage of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially into the marine ecosystem, due to human activity. Oceanic oil spills became a major environmental problem in the ‘60s, chiefly as a result of intensified petroleum exploration and production on continental shelves, of the use of supertankers capable of transporting more than 500,000 tonnes of oil, and of several accidents involving ships or oil rigs. Thousands of minor and several major oil spills related to well discharges and tanker operations are reported each year. As a consequence of a spill, crude oil and refined petroleum products may be released onto the surface of a large body of water. This can have disastrous consequences from the social, economical, and environmental point of view. This thesis focuses on evaluating the environmental consequences of accidental oil spills in the Mediterranean Sea through the use of the GNOME software. Releases of different types of oils, in various positions of the study area, in different meteorological conditions are taken into account. After Chapter 1, the introductory section, Chapter 2 is devoted to the processes of oil weathering. In Chapter 3, the software GNOME is introduced. In Chapter 4, some case studies are carried out and the significant factors that may influence the spill trajectory are examined, and then the results are discussed. Chapter 5 presents the conclusions.