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Originally Posted by Happy Monkey
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Awesome link.
So to make some wild assumptions based on the chart: Since the bottom of the well is 18,000 feet deep, and water pressure at 18,000 feet deep is roughly 500 ATM, we can assume that the oil pressure coming up out of the well is at 500 ATM. (I'm assuming that rock weighs the same as water here. Although clearly it weighs more.)
The water pressure at the blowout preventer is 150 ATM, so the pressure difference between the leaking oil and the water at the bottom of the ocean is 350 ATM. Or more likely more than that.
So how do you contain 350 ATM? A scuba tank is pressurized at 204 ATM, so if you can visualize the thickness of a scuba tank wall, if you doubled that, it ought to be strong enough. I'd quadrupole that, just to be on the safe side. So that's how strong whatever you are using has to be. But how to you cut off the stream from a fire hose nozzel?