Hacker News Reader

There were about 4000 cars on board. If each car has 10 quarts of oil, that's 10000 gallons or about 32 tonnes.

Oil tanker spills are typically in the range of tens to hundreds of thousands of tonnes of oil.

So, don't waste cycles worrying about it; it's a rounding error in the general scheme of things.

I'm not going to lose sleep over it. It's just a trained response to how sensitive we are about it in the local area. Motor oil spills are a big deal because they are more than just a fraction of the crude oil - they contain various toxic additives including heavy metals and can affect the local watershed.

I realize it's still likely a drop in the proverbial bucket. :(

Consider the amount of oil that just leaks every day from cars is orders of magnitude more.

How much seeps into and gets trapped in the road surface vs run-off?

10 quarts? I don't think the v8 in my first car even took that much. Aren't most vehicles more like 5 or 6 quarts?

I always overestimate in estimates like this so people don't quibble with them saying I'm underestimating.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com