Ten million
On March 24, 1989, the oil truck Exxon Valdez reached Alaska's Prince William Sound, after leaving the Valdez Marine Terminal full of crude oil. At 12:04 am, the ship uncovered a reef, ripping open the hull and discharging nearly 10 million gallons of oil into the atmosphere. Initial acknowledgments by Exxon and the Alyeska Pipeline Company were inadequate to accommodate much of the spill, and a hurricane swept in soon after, spreading the oil extensively.
Eventually, more than 1,000 miles of coastline were polluted, and hundreds of thousands of species of plants and animals died damaging the marine life to the greatest extent.
