On March 11, 2011, as a result of the strongest earthquake in the history of Japan and the subsequent tsunami, a major radiation accident of maximum level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale occurred at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. Financial damage, including cleanup costs, decontamination costs and compensation, is estimated at $100 billion. Since the work to eliminate the consequences will take years, the amount will increase.
A man-made disaster (English: Industrial disaster) is a major accident at a man-made facility, entailing massive loss of life and even an environmental disaster.
One of the features of man-made disasters is their randomness (this is how they differ from terrorist attacks). Typically, man-made disasters are contrasted with natural disasters. However, like natural ones, man-made disasters can cause panic, transport collapse, and also lead to a rise or loss of authority.
Every year, dozens of man-made disasters of various sizes occur in the world. In this issue you will find a list of the largest disasters that have occurred since the beginning of the century.
year 2000
Petrobrice is a Brazilian state-owned oil company. The company's headquarters are located in Rio de Janeiro. In July 2000, in Brazil, as a result of a disaster on an oil refining platform, more than a million gallons of oil (about 3,180 tons) leaked into the Iguazu River. For comparison: in the summer of 2013, 50 tons of crude oil spilled near a resort island in Thailand.
The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison the drinking water of several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth one. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially built diversion channels.
The Petrobrice company paid a fine of $56 million to the state budget and $30 million to the state budget.
year 2001
On September 21, 2001, in the French city of Toulouse, an explosion occurred at the AZF chemical plant, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate (a salt of nitric acid), which were in a finished products warehouse, exploded. According to the official version, the management of the plant is to blame for not ensuring the safe storage of an explosive substance.
The consequences of the disaster were gigantic: 30 people were killed, the total number of injured was more than 3,000, thousands of residential buildings and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including almost 80 schools, 2 universities, 185 kindergartens, 40,000 people were left homeless, more 130 enterprises actually ceased their activities. The total amount of damage is 3 billion euros.
2002
On November 13, 2002, off the coast of Spain, the oil tanker Prestige was caught in a strong storm, with more than 77,000 tons of fuel oil in its holds. As a result of the storm, a crack about 50 meters long appeared in the ship's hull. On November 19, the tanker broke in half and sank. As a result of the disaster, 63,000 tons of fuel oil entered the sea.
Cleaning the sea and shores of fuel oil cost $12 billion; the full damage caused to the ecosystem is impossible to estimate.
2004
On August 26, 2004, a fuel tanker carrying 32,000 liters of fuel fell from the 100-meter-high Wiehltal bridge near Cologne in western Germany. After the fall, the fuel tanker exploded. The culprit of the accident was a sports car that skidded on a slippery road, which caused the fuel tanker to skid.
This accident is considered one of the most expensive man-made disasters in history - temporary repairs to the bridge cost $40 million, and complete reconstruction cost $318 million.
2007
On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. The first explosion was followed 5-7 seconds later by four more, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. The chief engineer and almost the entire mine management were killed. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.
year 2009
On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at a plant located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the hydraulic units of the hydroelectric power station. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water pipelines were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the turbine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.
Due to the accident, the power supply to Siberian regions was disrupted, including limited electricity supply in Tomsk, and outages affected several Siberian aluminum smelters. As a result of the disaster, 75 people were killed and another 13 were injured.
The damage from the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station exceeded 7.3 billion rubles, including damage caused to the environment.
2010
On October 4, 2010, a fire occurred in western Hungary. At an aluminum production plant, an explosion destroyed the dam of a reservoir containing toxic waste - the so-called red mud. About 1.1 million cubic meters of the corrosive substance were flooded by a 3-meter flow in the cities of Kolontar and Dečever, 160 kilometers west of Budapest.
Red mud is a sediment that is formed during the production of aluminum oxide. When it comes into contact with the skin, it acts like an alkali. As a result of the disaster, 10 people died, about 150 received various injuries and burns.
On April 22, 2010, a manned drilling platform sank in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the US state of Louisiana after an explosion that killed 11 people and a 36-hour fire.
The oil leak was stopped only on August 4, 2010. About 5 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to a Swiss company, and at the time of the man-made disaster the platform was managed by British Petroleum.
2011
On March 11, 2011, in the northeast of Japan at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, after a strong earthquake, the largest accident in the last 25 years after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred. Following earthquakes with a magnitude of 9.0, a huge tsunami wave hit the coast, damaging four of the six reactors of the nuclear power plant and knocking out the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions and melting of the core.
The total emissions of iodine-131 and cesium-137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecquerels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.
Experts estimated the total damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion. Complete elimination of the accident, including dismantling the reactors, will take about 40 years.
NPP "Fukushima-1".
On July 11, 2011, an explosion occurred at a naval base near Limassol in Cyprus, which claimed 13 lives and brought the island nation to the brink of economic crisis, destroying the island's largest power plant.
Investigators accused the President of the Republic, Dimitris Christofias, of neglecting the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of arms smuggling to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored directly on the ground on the territory of the naval base and detonated due to the high temperature.
year 2012
On February 28, 2012, an explosion occurred at a chemical plant in the Chinese province of Hebei, killing 25 people. An explosion occurred in a workshop for the production of nitroguanidine (it is used as rocket fuel) at the Hebei Care chemical plant in the city of Shijiazhuang.
year 2013
On April 18, 2013, a powerful explosion occurred at a fertilizer plant in the American city of West, Texas.
Almost 100 buildings in the area were destroyed, from 5 to 15 people were killed, about 160 people were injured, and the town itself began to look like a war zone or the set of the next Terminator movie.
2015
On August 12, 2015, as a result of safety violations during the storage of explosives, two huge explosions occurred in a Chinese port, which led to a large number of casualties, hundreds of destroyed houses and thousands of destroyed cars.
The problem of disasters is very popular in scientific literature and the media.
Term - natural disasters - is used for two different concepts, which in some sense overlap. Catastrophe literally means a turn, a restructuring. This meaning corresponds to the most general idea of catastrophes in natural science, where the evolution of the Earth is seen as a series of different catastrophes that cause a change in geological processes and species of living organisms.
Interest in catastrophic events of the past is fueled by the fact that an inevitable part of any forecast is analysis of the past. The older the disaster, the more difficult it is to recognize its traces. Lack of information always gives rise to fantasies. Some researchers explain the same sharp milestones and turns in the history of the Earth by cosmic reasons - meteorite falls, changes in solar activity, seasons of the galactic year, others - by the cyclical nature of processes taking place in the bowels of the planet.
Second concept - natural disasters refers only to extreme natural phenomena and processes that result in loss of life. In this understanding - natural disasters are opposed – technogenic disasters, i.e. those caused directly by human activity.
Floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tornadoes - every year these and other catastrophic phenomena claim the lives of people and cause destruction in many areas of the Earth. For many centuries, scientists have been trying to grasp the patterns of the occurrence of such cataclysms, their cyclical nature, and find ways to predict and prevent catastrophic natural phenomena. The successes of science are not the same for disasters caused by various natural phenomena. Natural disasters are usually classified by the number of victims and destruction, as well as by natural phenomena (Appendix Table 1).
Some natural disasters occur almost instantly, such as earthquakes. Others, such as droughts, can extend over several years. People remember the terrible drought of the 20s of the last century in Ukraine and Russia, which claimed millions of lives. Not only for this catastrophe, but also for many others, especially ancient ones, the casualty figures given by different authors differ significantly.
Natural disasters in their generally accepted understanding have always been one of the elements of global ecodynamics. Natural disasters and various natural disasters in the past occurred in accordance with the development of natural trends, and starting from the 19th century, anthropogenic factors began to influence their dynamics. The deployment of engineering activities in the 20th century and the formation of a complex socio-economic structure of the world sharply increased not only the proportion of anthropogenically caused natural disasters, but also changed the characteristics of the environment, giving them dynamics towards the deterioration of the habitat of living beings, including humans. According to Schneider, in the historical past, climatic seasonal variations were characterized by high stability. The seasonal shift for 344 years since 1651 did not exceed one day per century. Since 1940, a pronounced anomaly in the seasonal shift has emerged in the northern hemisphere. For example, in the USA, the winter of 1994 was characterized by record low temperatures in the eastern states, and in July of this year a heat record was set in the southwest of the country, when the temperature reached 48.8°C. The heat wave in the summer of 1994 killed thousands of people in India. On the contrary, the second half of 1991 was characterized by lower temperatures, apparently due to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in June 1991, which released huge masses of ash into the atmosphere. In general, along with the processes of climate destabilization, there is an increase in the number of catastrophic events. The tables below give some idea of the dynamics of the number of natural disasters and related disasters.
Every year the number of natural disasters in the world increases, on average, by about 20 percent. Experts from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society came to this disappointing conclusion. Last year was no exception, beating all previous years in terms of the number of natural disasters, as noted in the organization’s annual report. (Appendix Fig. 1)
In 2006, the document states, there were 427 natural disasters in the world, which means an increase of 70 percent over the past 3 years. Most of all, the organization's specialists are concerned about the sharp increase in the number of deaths as a result of earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods. Over the past 10 years, mortality in disasters has increased from 600 thousand to 1.2 million people per year, and the number of victims has increased from 230 to 270 million (Appendix Table 2)
The purpose of this essay is to systematize, accumulate and consolidate knowledge about natural disasters.
To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:
1. investigate the causes of disasters, such as: earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, , , , , , , ;
2. consider their consequences.
Earthquakes are underground shocks and vibrations of the Earth's surface caused by natural causes (mainly tectonic processes). In some places on Earth, earthquakes occur frequently and sometimes reach great strength, disrupting the integrity of the soil, destroying buildings and causing casualties. The number of earthquakes recorded annually around the globe amounts to hundreds of thousands. However, the overwhelming majority of them are weak, and only a small proportion reaches the level of catastrophe.
Until the 20th century known, for example, are such catastrophic earthquakes as the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, the Vernenskoye earthquake in 1887, which destroyed the city of Verny (now Alma-Ata), the earthquake in Greece in 1870-73, etc.
By its intensity, i.e. According to the manifestation on the Earth's surface, earthquakes are divided, according to the international seismic scale MSK-64, into 12 gradations - points.
The area where an underground shock occurs - the source of an earthquake - is a certain volume in the thickness of the Earth, within which the process of releasing energy that has been accumulating for a long time occurs. In a geological sense, a source is a rupture or a group of ruptures along which almost instantaneous mass movement occurs. In the center of the outbreak there is a point called the hypocenter. The projection of the hypocenter onto the Earth's surface is called the epicenter. Around it there is an area of greatest destruction - the pleistoseist region. Lines connecting points with the same intensity of vibrations (in points) are called isoseists. (Appendix Table 3)
Some of the most destructive earthquakes of the 20th - early 21st centuries:
Earthquake in Russia (Koryakia) in 2006. On April 21, 2006, at 12:25 local time, an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale occurred in the Koryak Highlands area on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The epicenter was located 70 kilometers east of the village of Tilichiki. The first shock was followed by a second one measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale. The epicenter of the repeated earthquake was also located in the Koryak Highlands area, approximately 70 kilometers east of the village of Tilichiki.
In total, three settlements were in the disaster zone - Korf, Oosora and the most severely affected village of Tilichiki, where the fluctuation was 5.5 points. A school, kindergarten, residential buildings, heating mains and electrical networks were partially destroyed, and cracks appeared along the runway of the local airfield. Boiler houses were shut down due to the destruction of chimneys. Diesel power plants were shut down, and the villages of Korf and Tilichiki were de-energized. 31 people were injured, but none of the almost twelve thousand residents of Koryakia who found themselves in the earthquake area died. In the villages of Korf and Ossoora, social facilities and housing stock were damaged.
During April 22-23, 2006, about 60 more earthquakes occurred in Koryakia, which occurred at intervals of 15 minutes. Most of the tremors reached strengths of up to five on the Richter scale. Earthquakes continued to destroy houses that had already been damaged earlier. A state of emergency was introduced on the territory of the autonomy.
On May 30, 2006, a new earthquake was recorded, the strength of which reached 5 points on the Richter scale. The village of Tilichki was again closest to the epicenter of the earthquake. Continued earthquakes and melting soil could lead to further destruction of housing stock that survived the first strong earthquake on April 21.
Throughout its existence, man has repeatedly had a negative impact on the With the development of modern technologies, they began to take on larger-scale forms. A clear confirmation of this is the Gulf of Mexico. The disaster that happened there in the spring of 2010 caused irreparable damage to nature. As a result, the waters were polluted, leading to the death of huge numbers and a decline in their population.
The cause of the disaster was the accident on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, which occurred due to the unprofessionalism of workers and the negligence of the owners of the oil and gas company. As a result of incorrect actions, an explosion and fire occurred, resulting in the death of 13 people who were on the platform and took part in eliminating the consequences of the accident. For 35 hours, fire ships extinguished the fire, but it was possible to completely block the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico only after five months.
According to some experts, during the 152 days during which oil spilled from the well, about 5 million barrels of fuel got into the water. During this time, an area of 75,000 square kilometers was contaminated. American military personnel and volunteers from all over the world, who gathered in the Gulf of Mexico, were involved in eliminating the consequences of the accident. Oil was collected both manually and by special vessels. Together, it was possible to remove approximately 810 thousand barrels of fuel from the water.
The hardest thing was to stop the plugs being installed did not help. Cement was poured into the wells and drilling fluid was pumped, but complete sealing was achieved only on September 19, while the accident occurred on April 20. During this period, the Gulf of Mexico became the most polluted place on the planet. About 6 thousand birds, 600,100 dolphins, and many other mammals and fish were found dead.
Enormous damage has been caused to coral reefs, which cannot develop in polluted water. The mortality rate of the bottlenose dolphin has increased almost 50 times, and this is not all the consequences of the accident on the oil platform. also suffered significant damage as the Gulf of Mexico was one-third closed to fishing. The oil even reached the waters of coastal reserves, which were very important for other animals.
Three years have passed since the disaster, the Gulf of Mexico is slowly recovering from the damage caused. American oceanographers closely monitor the behavior of marine life, as well as corals. The latter began to multiply and grow in their usual rhythm, which indicates the purification of the water. But an increase in water temperature in this place was also recorded, which could negatively affect many marine inhabitants.
Some researchers assumed that the consequences of the disaster would affect the Gulf Stream, which affects the climate. Indeed, recent winters in Europe have been especially frosty, and the water itself has dropped by 10 degrees. But scientists have not yet been able to prove that the weather anomalies are related specifically to the oil accident.
24.11.20121. Earthquake in Haiti (number of victims 313,000)
The earthquake in Haiti occurred on January 12, 2010 at 16:53 local time. Its magnitude was 7.0, and the epicenter was near the city of Leogane, which is almost 25 km west of the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.
The tremors continued until January 24 and had a magnitude of 4.5. It is estimated that around 3 million people were affected by the disaster, with the death toll reaching around 316,000, the number of injuries at 300,000 injured and a million residents left homeless. The natural disaster became a serious problem, as there were serious problems with the distribution of aid, as well as outbreaks of violence and looting.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one hundred forty-ninth out of 182 countries on the Human Development Index. Haitian Education Minister Joel Jean-Pierre said the country's entire education system had collapsed, with nearly 1,300 schools and three main universities in Port-au-Prince destroyed. About $1.1 billion was donated to alleviate the consequences.
2. Indian Ocean Tsunami (230,000 casualties)
In December 2004, an earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean, known in the scientific world as the Sumatra-Adaman earthquake. The epicenter of the tremors was an area near the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The tsunami that followed the shocks killed almost 230 thousand people in 14 countries.
The most affected countries were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The earthquake was felt at the same time in places such as Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, and the Maldives. The amount of energy released by the earthquake can be compared to an explosion 1502 times larger than the explosion of the Hiroshima bomb, but less than the explosion of the Tsar Bomba.
This tsunami is considered one of the worst disasters in human history. The waves reached a height of thirty meters, and the vibrations had a magnitude of 9.1 and 9.3. This is the third largest earthquake ever recorded by seismographs. It also had the longest duration: from 8 to 10 minutes. Overall, the international community has donated more than $14 billion to humanitarian efforts.
3. Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar (146,000 casualties)
Cyclone Nargis was a tropical cyclone that became the worst natural disaster to hit Myanmar on May 2, 2008, causing approximately 146,000 deaths and leaving 55,000 people missing. The death toll may be higher, but the Burmese government, fearing adverse political consequences, has lowered the numbers.
The damage, according to experts, amounted to 10 billion dollars. This cyclone is the most dangerous in the Northern Indian Ocean basin, with the second highest death toll after Typhoon Nina in 1975. The name of the cyclone "Nargis" is a word of Persian origin and means the name of the flower "narcissus".
4. 2008 earthquake in Kashmir province, Pakistan (death toll 86,000)
On the morning of 8:52 local time on October 8, 2005, an earthquake struck the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, known as Azad Kashmir, affecting neighboring areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and much of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The strength of the tremors, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, was 7.8 points. According to official Pakistani government figures, about 75,000 people were killed, and international experts estimate the death toll at 86,000. Various reports suggest that dozens of towns and villages were destroyed in northern Pakistan.
Tremors were also felt in neighboring countries such as Tajikistan, Afghanistan, western China, and the Indian part of Kashmir, where about 1,400 people died. The earthquake was a consequence of the growth of the Himalayas. Satellite measurements show that parts of the mountains directly above the epicenter rose several meters. About 6.2 billion dollars were received by the Pakistani government to eliminate the consequences of the disaster.
5. Earthquake in Sichuan Province, China (death toll 67,197)
The 2008 Sichuan earthquake, also sometimes referred to as the Great Sichuan Earthquake, occurred. The force of the tremors was 8.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake began at 14:28 local time on May 12. According to official data, about 69,197 people died. It also became known that 374,176 people were injured, 18,222 were missing, and about 4.8 million people were left homeless.
This earthquake is considered the deadliest in China since the 1976 earthquake in Tanhan province, where about 240 thousand people died. Fluctuations were also felt in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as in neighboring countries. The Chinese government was forced to spend $146.5 billion to eliminate the consequences of the disaster.
6. Heat waves from Russia 2010 (number of deaths 56,000)
In 2010, the Northern Hemisphere summer was quite extreme in terms of temperatures in the United States, Canada, Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan, Indochina and the European continent as a whole. It was even dubbed the “Russian heat wave.”
The entire period from April to June became the warmest in continental areas in the Northern Hemisphere. These extreme weather conditions have led to wildfires in China, and the worst drought in 60 years in Yunnan province. About 56,000 people died in the said region due to this disaster. Moscow and the Moscow region were also suffocating in the smoke of forest fires.
The largest piece of the ice shelf in the Arctic Ocean, which connects Greenland and Nares Strait, has broken away. Apparently, such anomalies are caused by high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which leads to an increase in average temperatures.
7. 2003 earthquake in the city of Bam, Iran (number of victims 43,000)
An earthquake in the city of Bam and surrounding towns in Kerman province in southeastern Iran occurred at 5:46 a.m. local time on December 26, 2003. The earthquake was estimated at 6.6 points according to data from the United States Geological Survey. There were 26,271 deaths and approximately 30,000 injuries.
But some other estimates put the death toll at 43,000. The destruction was catastrophic due to the use of mud brick as a standard material in the structures, which did not comply with construction safety regulations adopted in Iran in 1989. Significantly, some 44 countries immediately sent assistance and 60 made offers of assistance.
8. Heat in Europe in 2003 (number of victims 40,000)
In 2003, the European heat was a killer, especially in France. Due to severe health problems and drought, the death toll has reached almost 40,000. According to the French National Institute of Health, almost 14,802 deaths in France were caused by heat.
In Portugal, where temperatures reached 48 degrees Celsius, extensive forest fires swept through, with almost five percent of the countryside and ten percent of forests under fire. In the Netherlands, about 1,500 deaths were also associated with high temperatures for this country (almost 37.8 degrees Celsius).
A couple of hundred deaths were recorded in Spain and Germany, where temperatures reached 45.1 and 41 degrees Celsius respectively. In Switzerland, many glaciers in the Alps have melted, causing avalanches and floods. A new national temperature record was set at 41.5 degrees Celsius. Thousands of people died across Britain. Agricultural sector productivity fell by ten percent due to drought and heat.
9. Tsunami and earthquake in the Tohoku region, Japan (number of victims 18,400)
The Tohoku earthquake, also called the Northeast Pacific Offshore Earthquake, with a magnitude of about 9.0 struck the coast of Japan at about 2:46 p.m. local time on March 11, 2011. The epicenter was located 72 km east of the Oshika Peninsula in the Tohoku region. The tsunami waves reached 23.6 m. They reached the coast of Japan within a few minutes after the earthquake. A smaller shock wave reached other countries along the Pacific coast a few hours later.
Some incidents entail not only human casualties and extensive material damage, but also severe changes in climate, flora and fauna. In this article we will talk about the ten largest environmental disasters in the world, which led not only to great human casualties, but also to monstrous consequences for nature.
Environmental disasters are those that not only claim lives, but also lead to quite disastrous consequences for the environment. Typically, such disasters are the result of human activity. After all, the development of modern technologies, in particular in the energy sector, not only provides tangible material benefits, but also, if used ineptly, can lead to disastrous consequences.
Oil release due to the accident on the Prestige tanker
The single-hull tanker Prestige, which flew the Bahamian flag, was originally designed to transport crude oil, built at the Hitachi shipyard and commissioned on March 1, 1976.
When the tanker was passing through the Bay of Biscay on November 13, 2002, it encountered a severe storm off the coast of Galicia. Due to the damage received, a crack thirty-five meters long appeared, which led to a leak of fuel oil in the amount of 1000 tons per day.
To make the situation worse, Spanish coastal authorities refused to allow the ship to enter the nearest port. Instead, an attempt was made to tow the tanker to one of the ports of Portugal, but local authorities also refused. As a result, the ship was towed out to sea.
The final loss of the ship occurred on November 19. It simply split into two parts and its remains sank to the bottom, to a depth of about 3,700 meters. Because the damage could not be repaired and the oil could not be pumped, more than 70 million liters of oil spilled into the sea. The resulting stain stretched for thousands of kilometers along the coastline, causing irreparable damage to flora and fauna.
This oil spill was the most serious environmental disaster on the European coast. The damage from the incident was estimated at four billion euros, and three hundred thousand volunteers had to be involved to eliminate its consequences.
Exxon Valdez tanker wreck
The oil tanker Exxon Valdez departed the terminal in Valdez, Alaska, on March 23, 1989, at 9:12 p.m., bound for Long Beach, California, via Prince William Sound. The tanker was fully loaded with oil. The pilot took him through Valdez, and then handed over control of the vessel to the captain, who had been drinking liquor that evening.
In order to avoid a collision with icebergs, Captain Joseph Jeffrey Haizwold deviated from the chosen course, which notified the coast guard. Having received the appropriate permission, the captain changed course and at 23 o'clock left the wheelhouse, transferring control of the ship to his third mate and the sailor, who had already served one watch without receiving the required six hours of rest after it. At that time, the ship itself was controlled by an autopilot, which guided the ship through the navigation system.
Before leaving the pilothouse, the captain left instructions to his assistant to turn at the moment when the ship was abeam of the island two minutes higher. Despite the fact that the assistant gave the corresponding order to the helmsman, it was either announced late,
or completed with delay. This resulted in the ship colliding with Blythe Reef on 24 March 00:28.
This resulted in 40 million liters of oil leaking into the sea, although some environmentalists argue that the actual leak was much higher. 2,400 kilometers of coastline were damaged, making this incident one of the worst environmental disasters.
Bhopal disaster
The Bhopal incident is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in the world due to the fact that it resulted in the death of eighteen thousand people and enormous damage to the environment.
The construction of the chemical plant in Bhopal was carried out by a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation. Initially, the enterprise was intended to produce pesticides to be used in agriculture. It was planned that the plant would import some of the chemicals, but in order to compete with similar enterprises, it was decided to move to more complex and dangerous production, which made it possible to do without foreign raw materials.
In July 1984, it was planned to sell the company, since due to crop failures the demand for its products had seriously decreased. Due to insufficient funding, work continued on equipment that did not meet safety standards.
At the time of the disaster, the plant was producing the then popular insecticide Sevin, which appears as a result of the reaction of methyl isocyanate with alpha-naphthol in a carbon tetrachloride environment. Methyl isocyanate was stored in three containers with a total capacity of approximately 180 thousand liters of liquid, which were partially dug into the ground.
The cause of the accident was a sudden release of methyl isocyanate vapor, which heated above the boiling point, causing the emergency valve to rupture. Because of this, forty-two tons of toxic fumes were released, forming a cloud that covered an area with a radius of two kilometers from the plant, and in particular covered the railway station and residential areas.
Due to late information to the population and a lack of medical personnel, about five thousand people died on the first day. Thirteen thousand more died within a few years from the effects of toxic fumes released into the atmosphere.
Accident and fire at the SANDOZ chemical factory
On November 1, 1986, one of the worst environmental disasters in the world occurred, which led to terrible consequences for wildlife. The chemical plant, located near the Swiss city of Basel, on the banks of the Rhine River, was engaged in the production of various agricultural chemicals. Due to the fire, about thirty tons of mercury and pesticides were dumped into the river.
As a result of chemicals entering the water, the Rhine turned red, and people living on the coast were forbidden to leave their homes. In some cities in Germany it was necessary to close water pipelines and use only the water that was brought in tanks. In addition, about half a million fish and representatives of river fauna died, and some species also became completely extinct. The program, aimed at making the waters of the Rhine suitable for swimming, runs until 2020.
London smog 1952
At the beginning of December 1952, a cold fog descended on London, causing residents to actively use coal for heating their premises. Because in Britain
After the war, low-quality coal was used, which contained a lot of sulfur; combustion produced a lot of smoke, which contained sulfur dioxide. Also, a certain contribution to air pollution was made by motor vehicles, which only recently began to be actively used in London, as well as the operation of several coal-fired power plants. Also, polluted air from the industrial areas of Europe was brought by the wind, which blew from the English Channel.
Since fogs are not uncommon in London, the reaction of the townspeople to what was happening was quite calm. But the consequences of this incident were quite sad. According to statistics, more than one hundred thousand people suffered from respiratory diseases, of whom about twelve thousand died.
This incident is considered one of the worst cases of air pollution and led to serious changes in attitudes towards environmental research and the impact of clean air on human health. To date, this incident is considered one of the largest disasters in England.
Flixborough chemical plant disaster
The Nipro plant, located in Flixborough, produced ammonium. Its storage facilities contained up to two thousand tons of cyclohexane, more than three thousand tons of cyclohexanone, about four thousand tons of caprolactam, two and a half thousand tons of phenol and other chemicals.
Ball tanks and other process containers were not sufficiently filled, which seriously increased the risk of explosion. In addition, many flammable materials were kept in factory settings at elevated temperatures and pressures. In particular, the cyclohexane oxidation production plant contained approximately five hundred tons of flammable liquid.
In addition, due to the rapid pace of production growth, the fire protection system quickly lost its effectiveness. Production engineers partly deviated from technological regulations and began to ignore safety standards under pressure from management.
On June 1, 1974 at 16:53, the plant was rocked by a powerful explosion. The flames engulfed the production premises, and the shock wave swept through the surrounding villages and towns, tearing off roofs from houses, breaking windows, injuring people, which led to the death of 55 people. The power of the explosion was approximately equal to the effect of a 45-ton TNT charge.
In addition, due to the explosion, a large cloud of toxic gases appeared, which led to the need to evacuate residents of populated areas near the plant.
The total damage from the disaster amounted to 36 million pounds sterling, which is the heaviest blow to English industry.
Death of the Aral Sea
The drying up of the Aral Sea is one of the most famous environmental disasters that occurred in the former Soviet Union. Initially, this body of water was considered the fourth largest lake in the world.
Due to poor design of agricultural canals that took water from the Amudarya and Syr Darya rivers that fed the Aral Sea, starting in 1960, the lake retreated from the shore, revealing a bottom covered in pesticides, chemicals and salt. This led to rapid evaporation of water. In particular, between 1960 and 2007, the Aral Sea lost a thousand cubic kilometers of water, and its size is less than 10% of its original size.
Of the 178 species of vertebrates that lived in the Aral Sea, only 38 survived.
Fire on the Piper Alpha oil platform
The disaster that occurred on July 6, 1988 on the Piper Alpha platform, which was used for oil and gas production, is considered the largest in the history of natural resource extraction. Due to the fact that the actions of the personnel were not sufficiently thought out and indecisive, 167 people out of 226 who were on the platform at that moment died in the fire. In addition, due to the fact that the supply of hydrocarbons through the pipes was not immediately stopped, the fire was maintained for a long time and only became stronger.
Insured losses due to this disaster amount to $3.4 billion, which does not take into account the number of environmental problems caused by this incident.
Disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
The tragedy that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is known to any person living in the countries of the former USSR. The consequences of this incident are still felt today, and, without any doubt, this is one of the biggest environmental disasters in the world.
On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred in the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as a result of which the reactor was completely destroyed and a powerful release of radioactive substances was released into the environment. In the first three months after the accident, 31 people died. Over the next fifteen years, between 60 and 80 people died due to the effects of radiation exposure.
Due to the release of radioactive substances, more than one hundred and fifteen thousand people had to be evacuated from a thirty-kilometer zone around the station. More than six hundred thousand people took part in eliminating the consequences and significant resources were spent. Part of the territory around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is still considered unsuitable for permanent residence.
Accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant
On March 11, 2011, the largest environmental disaster in the world occurred. A strong earthquake and tsunami damaged the power supply system and backup diesel generators of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, which disabled the cooling systems and caused a meltdown of the reactor core in power units 1, 2 and 3. As a result, due to the formation of hydrogen, an explosion occurred that did not damage the reactor vessel, but its outer shell was destroyed.
Radiation levels quickly began to rise, and due to the leaky cladding of some fuel rods, radioactive cesium leaked.
In sea water in the thirty-kilometer zone of the station on March 23, an excess of the norm of iodine-131 and an amount of cesium-137 was found, which was significantly below the permissible norm. Over time, the radioactivity of the water increased and on March 31 it exceeded the norm by 4385 times. And this is not surprising, because during the accident, tons of contaminated water were thrown into the sea.
