A giant structure built to contain the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico arrived on Thursday at the site of the ruptured well spewing hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude into the sea.
The barge carrying the 90 metric tonne containment dome — a white silo with a dome-shaped top that stands four stories high — arrived at the site. The device was expected to be lowered down later on Thursday to the seabed some 5,000 feet below the surface to allow the crude spilling from the well to be pumped into a nearby tanker ship, according to energy giant BP. The laborious task of lowering it precisely over the leak and attaching it to the ship is expected to take four or five days.
