Dangers in Blowouts
Blowouts are very dangerous and can
cause a lot of damage. 
A blowout has enough force to push
out drill strings from the well. Oil and gas are
also not the only materials launched out of a well
in a blowout. Rocks, mud and sand can be launched
out of the well. With heavy materials and
machinery under high pressure objects can be
launched out of the well and ripped off the rig at
high speeds it can be very dangerous.
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As materials are launched out they can cause
enough heat through friction or rocks sparking on
objects to ignite the natural gas or oil.
Sometimes resulting in uncontainable fires and
destruction of the rig and well. Sub sea blowouts
can also occur causing the rig to potentially
sinking the rig and lighting it ablaze.
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The Physics
To really understand the dangers you have to
see the speed that rocks are being projected out
of the well. With rock reaching a height of 200
feet (60 meters) we can use our simple free fall
motion to see what the velocity is as rocks shoot
out of the well and hit the ground.
Velocity = sqrt(2*Gravity*Height)
Velocity = sqrt(2*9.81*60)
Velocity = 32.29m/s
These calculations allow us to see
that the rocks are projected and hit the ground at
very fast speeds making them very dangerous. At
32.29m/s the rocks can easily spark when coming in
contact with objects and be destructive in impact.