The University of South Florida's College of Marine Sciences is getting a $20.2 million grant to continue studying the impact of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, in part by studying another Gulf of Mexico oil spill that happened in 1979.
The Ixtoc 1 spill occurred just north of the Mexican coast. Problems with drilling muds led to a blowout at the government-owned rig, which caught fire and collapsed - just like BP's Deepwater Horizon rig off the coast of Louisiana four years ago.
The Tampa Bay Times reports the school plans to spend the $20.2 million grant on a gulf-wide assessment of fish and sediment contamination to better understand and predict what happens to the oil in case another disaster like Deepwater Horizon ever occurs.