"The National Park Service has been an integral part of the national federal response to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, and tragically killed 11 of the rig's crew."

A detailed overview of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, and the ecological and economic impacts.

FWS Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Response

Lots of data - air, water, sediment, and waste management.

"More Animals Are Dying, but the Causes Have Not Yet Been Determined: As of Aug. 16, more than 7,000 birds, sea turtles and dolphins have been found dead or debilitated in the gulf since the oil spill began. A majority of the dead were not visibly oiled, and officials have yet to determine why they died. But they have confirmed that many more animals are dying than during the same time period in previous years."

"Gulf Coast bird watchers continue to survey beaches and marshes for birds as oil gushes from the Deepwater Horizon oil well.This tool highlights 10 focal species of conservation concern that are being impacted by the current oil spill. For each species, we display hundreds of recent Gulf Coast sightings on a map along with count information.. This information can effectively steer beach protection and clean-up efforts to the sites with the greatest concentrations of birds and most important habitats. "

"As the nation's leading scientific resource for oil spills, NOAA has been on the scene of the BP spill from the start. The agency provides scientific, weather and biological services to federal, state and local organizations."

"Watch the latest videos about the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and its effect on the Gulf coast."

Amazing images of wildfires, hurricanes, status of the gulf oil spill, etc. Definitely worth checking out!

"The MODIS Rapid Response System generates daily near-real-time imagery of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, including GIS compatible formats. Images are available in photo-like, true and false color from both the Terra and Aqua satellites at 2km, 1km, 500m, and 250m resolutions."

Explore a variety of satellite image overlays

"Last week we made imagery from NASA's MODIS available as an overlay for Google Earth, which currently shows the extent of the oil spill through April 29, and we'll continue to add more imagery as it becomes available. We've also made radar images from ESA's ENVISAT available through this KML file. Below, you can see the progression of the spill over time."

Links to many Google Earth overlays

Gulf Coast beach closings, oil slick and fishing ban map

"But how big is the spill, really? It's hard to get a sense of the true size when it's over the ocean floor. Use the links below to see how large the spill is."

Interactive map and timeline