En un comunicado, el grupo ecologista WWF (World Wild-Life Fund) afirma que la llegada de las "galletas de chapapote" a la costa del Espacio Natural de Doñana demuestra "la grave amenaza que supondría para las mismas la aprobación de los proyectos de ampliación de esta refinería y la construcción de la nueva Refinería Balboa" en la provincia de Badajoz, que estaría conectada con la de Huelva por un oleoducto.

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/08/01/andalucia/124912641...

A second stretch of Southern California shoreline has been closed after masses of tar balls washed ashore, and authorities said on Thursday they were looking into whether the sticky blobs were linked to a recent oil pipeline spill.
Read more at Reutershttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/05/us-usa-tarballs-ca...

https://books.google.es/books?id=qlOEBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT64&lpg=PT...

What Are Tar Balls?
Tar Balls are fragments or lumps of oil weathered to a semi-solid or solid consistency, feel sticky, and are difficult to remove from contaminated surfaces. They are formed through the combining of viscous hydrocarbons with debris that is present in the water column. They range in size from a pinhead to approximately 30 centimeters in diameter.

http://www.nrt.org/production/nrt/rrthome.nsf/resources/rrti...$file/23_rrt4_tar_ball_pamphlet.pdf

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Note added at 26 mins (2015-11-11 20:16:07 GMT)
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Aggregation. Oil aggregates in the form of petroleum lumps, tar balls, or pelagic tar can be presently found both in the open and coastal waters as well as on the beaches. They derive from crude oil after the evaporation and dissolution of its relatively light fractions, emulsification of oil residuals, and chemical and microbial transformation. The chemical composition of oil aggregates is rather changeable. However, most often, its base includes asphaltenes (up to 50%) and high-molecular-weight compounds of the heavy fractions of the oil.

http://www.offshore-environment.com/oil.html

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Note added at 33 mins (2015-11-11 20:23:30 GMT)
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El tamaño de las galletas, mezcladas con arena, hace que simulen cantos rodados.

http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/carballo/2011/08/24/0003_201108...

'Tar balls mixed with sand' might be more exact because that describes the biscuity effect.

Tar balls are just what they sound like: dense accumulations of hydrocarbons that have been mixed and rolled with sand and shells and washed ashore in all shapes and sizes—including a shape and size perfect for pitching at “No Swimming Here to Pier” signs. All tar balls begin as oil originating from one of three sources. First, there are natural leaks along the continental shelf, which runs 40 to 100 miles off the Texas shoreline. - See more at: http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/texas-primer-the-tar...


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Note added at 22 hrs (2015-11-12 18:07:04 GMT)
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Glad to be of help :)