How big is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?

At this stage, the spill covers at least 2500 square miles of ocean surface. But what’s that even mean? How does 2500 square miles compare to say, Gauteng, South Africa?

Well, take a look at this image I created using this website (site needs the Google Earth plug-in). As you can see, the spill is nearly the same size as Gauteng! And growing. Come on BP… get moving! You’ve got some work to do!