If you have not been living under a rock, you will know that the large oil spill that is currently happening in the Gulf of Mexico is the most talked about topic, especially on the news and on Twitter as a trending topic. With this in mind, various internet technologies have emerged to calculate the size and a resolution.

Paul Rademacher, an Engineering Manager at Google, has created a way so that users can view the size and range of the current oil spill in relation to the area where they live. The tool was created with assistance of Google Maps and can be accessed as a part of Rademacher’s blog here.

I have provided some samples of this data below:



(Lexington, KY)



(Chicago, IL)



(London, England)

All of the data that is currently used to generate the information for this tool are provided by various reliable sources, such as: NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), Google Crisis Response, and
The State of Louisana.

To utilize the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Map, you must have the Google Earth Browser Plug-in installed on your computer. This plug-in will only work on the Windows and Mac platforms.

This is another way how the technologies of the search-giant Google can be utilized in other ways to help people.

Please feel free to leave any feedback regarding this amazing tool in our comments section below.