The Ixtoc well could be accessed directly, while the Deepwater spill must be combated remotely, using robots to wield clamps, saws and other tools while monitoring the action by video feed.

The northeast Mexico coastline was fouled by the Ixtoc 1 oil spill in 1979. Heavy rains helped the Texas shore recover within months.

Along the Texas coast, they’ve lived this beforeMexico’s Ixtoc I oil spill in 1979 showed what could happen to our beaches - but our heads were buried in the sand ...

The IXTOC I well continued to spill oil at a rate of 10,000 - 30,000 barrels per day until it was finally capped on March 23, 1980.

The oil drifting north from the Ixtoc spill not only wiped out hundreds of million of crabs on Mexican beaches but, also far to the north, managed to killed 80 percent of the segmented worms and ...

The blast at the Ixtoc oil well off the coast of Mexico in 1979 caused the largest ever peacetime oil spill - and has similarities to the current spill off Louisiana, as the BBC's Julian ...

The oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's blown-out well could effectively be contained in the next three days, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said today. Work to install a new ...

By then, it could surpass Ixtoc as the worst oil spill in history, said Tad Patzek, chairman of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas-Austin.

Like the BP spill, the Ixtoc disaster began with a burst of gas followed by an explosion and fire, followed by a relentless gush of oil that resisted all attempts to block it.

Burning oil from the 1979 Ixtoc I spill off the Mexican Gulf Coast. Money to study the environmental damage from this disaster disappeared soon after the oil well was rendered dead.