Large oil spill occurs in Indian Ocean - Boston.com

The scale of oil spills at sea is shocking. A little like commercial aeroplane crashes, they don’t happen particularly often but when they do the sheer size of each discreet event seems to overwhelm its significance in the overall scheme of things.

The photo is damn impressive, as are the figures quoted, but I’d forgotten exactly how big the Exxon Valdez disaster was: eleven million gallons. Shit.