Put A Lid On It: Patching the Earth’s Wound at 5000 Feet

The Gulf Coast oil spill presents a wide array of problems, none more urgent than figuring out how to immediately contain the leak.

The project is an engineer's wet dream, (no pun intended.) They've created an "Oil containment dome” that is ready to be placed atop the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig that continues to spew oil. This is the first time workers will have to operate a situation like this under these conditions: It's a one-of-a-kind steel and cement box resembling a milk carton that is 5000 feet underwater. This type of containment dome has been used in the past, but at most to depths of 1200 feet. Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, told CNN that this model has been tested but "the pressures and temperatures are very different here. So we cannot be confident that it will work."

Check out the dome:

And, if this plan is looking a little flimsy to you, you're not alone. Jon Stewart has his doubts too: