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Following the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill, U.S. government officials and BP cleanup crews were confounded by millions of seemingly missing gallons of oil. Recent analysis of the Gulf of Mexico’s seafloor indicates that up to 10 million of those gallons could have settled down there. A total of 200 millions gallons spilled into the Gulf during the catastrophic 2010 incident.

Researchers took 62 core samples from around the site of the spill, avoiding areas of the seafloor where natural oil seeps through cracks. Since oil does not contain the radioactive isotope carbon-14, samples that lacked carbon-14 indicated the presence of oil. All told, they found that approximately 3,243 square miles are covered with oil from the spill.

Although the sunken oil means that the water above it is relatively clean of oil particles, scientists still warn of long-term negative effects on the ecosystem. “This is going to affect the Gulf for years to come,” said lead researcher Jeff Chanton in a statement. “Fish will likely ingest contaminants because worms ingest the sediment, and fish eat the worms. It's a conduit for contamination into the food web.”

Read more about the oil spill here.