I would mention there are a lot of natural oil leaks.
A friend of mine living in Santa Barabara has said there's a lot of 100% all-natural tar on the beaches there.
A friend of mine living in Santa Barabara has said there's a lot of 100% all-natural tar on the beaches there.
and another one recently - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugio_oil_spill
A fair bit of that tar wound up there because of human activity.
Also, if you need to get tar off your feet after a walk on the beach, baby oil works well :)
100 to 150 barrels worth of liquid petroleum per day. 36,500 to 54,750 per year. It leaks about as much as the 1969 oil spill every 2 years. Or about as much as the Refugio oil spill every month.
I would assume the sudden influx of oil has a hugely adverse affect on wildlife, which still makes them problematic. And 2 years worth of leaks in 10 days sounds catastrophic to the local wildlife. But long term it doesn't seem like either of these spills would be a major contributor to the tar you find on beaches in the region today.
An oil company even has a cap over one of the bigger natural leaks to capture the oil that would otherwise be entering the ocean.
I wonder if there are any statistics on human vs. natural oil spill pollution over the last few centuries.