| 5000
B.C. |
First
archaeological signs of human inhabitance and the use of tar and oil from
seeps in the Santa Barbara area |
| 500
A.D. |
Because
large whole trees were scarce, Chumash Native Americans began building plank
canoes called "tomol" and caulked them with boiled tar and pine
pitch |
| 1000
|
Chumash
natives preparing tar as a traded commodity |
| 1542
|
Oct.
16, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sails into the SB Channel and noted that
the natives were using the asphaltum as canoe caulk. He used some of the
tar to caulk his own ships |
| 1772
|
Padre
Pedro Font of Juan Bautista De Anza's colonizing party notes tar balls on
the beaches and springs of asphaltum flowing to the sea |
| 1792
|
George
Vancouver, nagivator for Captian Cook, noted an irridescent, oily film over
the entire surface of the SB Channel as well as the strong smell of tar |
| 1850
|
Geologists
and early settlers note and begin to tap into the oil and tar resources
of Santa Barbara county |
| 1860
|
George
Gilbert, former whale oil refiner, builds a refinery near Ojai and produced
lamp oil |
| 1880-1890 |
New
residents hit oil and gas reserves while drilling for water, gas industry
starts up with wells onshore |
| 1896 |
Offshore
oil production begins along the coastline of the SB Channel offshore of
Summerland. Reservoirs are depleted by 1920 |
| 1928 |
Ellwood
Oil Field discovered and oil tanks were constructed onshore |
| 1941-present |
Scientific
studies of the oil and gas seeps offshore of Goleta |
| 1942 |
Ellwood
oil pier bombed by Japanese submarine, only attack on continental US since
War of 1812 |
| 1970 |
Estimation
of oil seepage offshore of Coal Oil Point placed at 50-70 barrels per day
(Allen et al. 1970) |
| 1972 |
Fischer
et al. conduct first sonar surveys of gas seeps offshore of Coal Oil Point |
| 1982 |
ARCO/Mobil
place Seep Tents over an area of intense seepage offshore of Coal Oil Point
and initially capture 1,000,000 ft3/day. The current daily tent capture
rate is equivalent to the emissions of 35,000 cars.
|
| 1994 |
UCSB
studies of seeps begin with repeated sonar surveys, tracer releases in the
seawater, gas composition analysis, sidescan sonar, and seep gas capture |
| 1996 |
Repeat
sonar surveys along with earlier sonar surveys conducted by Fischer in 1972
offshore of Coal Oil Point, indicate an almost complete dissappearance of
gas emissions from the sea floor surrounding Platform Holly over ~20 years |
| 1999 |
UCSB
papers suggest that the reductions in natural hydrocarbon seepage can be
attributed to offshore production at Platform Holly reducing reservoir pressure |
| 2004 |
Continuing
research by UCSB on the variation of seep
gas discharge, and estimation of the oil seepage rate |