Tarball (oil)

Tarballs are an aquatic pollutant in most environments, although they can occur naturally and as such are not always associated with oil spills.

[1][2][3] Tarballs may be dispersed over long distances by deep sea currents.

[2] The density of tarballs depends on the solids picked up in the weathering process.

[5][6] Tarball concentration and features have been used to assess the extent of oil spills and their composition can also be used to identify their sources of origin.

[7][8] They are slowly decomposed by microorganisms such as Chromobacterium violaceum, Cladosporium resinae, Bacillus submarinus, Micrococcus varians, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida marina, and Saccharomyces estuari.