| Abstract: | Five-to-50-gallon slicks of No. 6 (Bunker C) fuel oil were tracked for several hours on six different occasions. Slick motion was due mainly to surface currents. The slick wind factor varied with wind speed, showing a threshold at seven knots and approaching 2.0 percent at 20 knots. Published values of 2.3 to 5 percent did not exclude the effects of wind-generated surface currents. Prediction of slick motion using wind and published tidal-current data was deficient; accuracy will require extensive wind and surface-current time-series data. |
