Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Satellite image of an oil spill (white area) in the Gulf of Mexico. This spill followed a blowout that caused an explosion on the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, which then sank off the coast of Louisiana. The oil spill, originating from the blowout 1,500 metres below sea level, is releasing an estimated 42,000 gallons (160,000 litres) of oil into the sea each day. Image captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA?ａ?s Aqua satellite, and the Advanced Land Imager on NASA's Earth Observing satellite, on 25th April 2010.