Size Matters: This is Your Nation's Capital on BP Gulf Gusher Goo

Paul Rademacher, engineering director for Google Maps, has developed an application (How big is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?) that plots the surface extent of the BP Gulf Gusher oil slick over any location on Earth. The app was designed to give a visual demonstration of the geographical magnitude of the disaster in terms anyone could relate to their own area.

The view pictured here shows the area as of May 21, one month after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, superimposed on the Washington DC region. The area of solid oil coverage extends from near Wilmington across northern Delaware, northeastern Maryland, Baltimore City and its contiguous suburbs, much of central Maryland including all of Howard and Montgomery Counties, Washington DC, northern Virginia, and southward into the Northern Neck. Scattered patches extend westward toward the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah Valley as well as southward across the Chesapeake Bay.

Image (click to enlarge): BP Gulf Gusher oil slick as of May 21 compared to Washington DC metropolitan region

(A tip of the wind vane to CNN.)