Environmental Disasters - Atlas Obscura
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Environmental Disasters

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An adult male orangutan contemplates his next move in haze produced by Indonesia’s 2015 wildfires.
science

Wildfire Smoke Changes Orangutan Calls in Borneo

During massive fires in Indonesia, the critically endangered primates' voices provided clues to their overall health.
Wendy Erb July 3, 2023
By 1994, the seaweed had died back on Mearns Rock and mussels were elbowing in.
disasters

Alaskans Have Photographed This Boulder for 33 Years

In 1990, a scientist began visually documenting Prince William Sound’s recovery from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. When funding ran out, volunteers took over.
J. Besl June 12, 2023
Buland Darwaza (Door of Victory) at Fatehpur Sikri, the one-time capital of the Mughal Empire.
caves

Clues in Caves Suggest Drought May Have Brought Down India's Mughal Empire

Patterns in 1,000-year-old stalagmite formation connect the fall of empires, kingdoms, and industries to long and deadly dry periods.
Gayatri Kathayat September 26, 2022
Kayakers visit a slumped sinkhole on the Dead Sea Coast.
sinkhole

Is There a Future for the Sinkhole-Studded Dead Sea?

Receding waters are leaving behind an environmental disaster, and a new kind of tourism.
Gitit Ginat June 1, 2022
A Sri Lankan Navy soldier walks amid the debris washed ashore from the container ship MV <em>X-Press Pearl</em> in May 2021.
shipwrecks

What It Takes to Clean Up a Massive Nurdle Spill 

Following a maritime disaster, Sri Lankans are cleaning their beaches, nurdle by nurdle.
Zinara Rathnayake May 27, 2022
Even miles inland, cows' overgrazing can have offshore consequences.
beaches

How Cows Destroyed an Entire Marine Ecosystem in California

A researcher's quest to understand a mysterious mass extinction leads to cud-chewing culprits.
Jack Tamisiea June 21, 2021
Invasive blue catfish only have one known predator: humans.
animals

Invasive Catfish Are Rewriting Chesapeake Bay Cuisine

An unloved invader has found its way onto menus across the region.
Luke Fater January 9, 2020
Rotterdam, Netherlands

Floating Farm

The world's first floating farm is staffed by one human, three robots, and 35 cows.
A sign warns visitors against fishing from the Passaic River in Newark.
food

The Swap-a-Fish Program That Traded Tilapia for Seafood Contaminated by Agent Orange

New Jersey's Passaic River has been unsafe to fish for decades.
Reina Gattuso March 15, 2019
View from the hilltop.
Brooks, Kentucky

Valley of the Drums

This calm grassy field was once a Superfund site full of thousands of nasty chemicals.
In the summer of 2016, the artist Dan Borelli changed the colors of the streetlights in Ashland, Massachusetts, to reflect underground concentrations of toxic chemicals.
art

In Massachusetts, an Artist Explores an Old Dye Factory's Toxic Influence

The Ashland-Nyanza Project uses color to promote history and healing.
Cara Giaimo February 15, 2018
A close-up view of the marker.
Hartford, Connecticut

Flood 1936 Marker

A tiny memorial for the year the Connecticut River almost destroyed New England.
The effects of the Zinc Works on Webster Hill.
environmental disasters

The Historically Hazy Story of Donora's Deadly Smog

A 1948 environmental disaster in the Pennsylvania town resulted in half truths, conspiracy theories, and the introduction of clean air laws.
Liam Baranauskas November 29, 2017
Abandoned pier on the Salton Sea, Desert Shores, California
science

The Once Glamorous Salton Sea is Now Rife With Toxic Dust and Dying Fish

The Salton Sea is a polluted accident turned natural resource, and the government is finally giving it funding.
Natalie Zarrelli September 29, 2016
Satellite view of the closed down W.R. Grace Mine
Libby, Montana

Asbestos Town — Libby, Montana

Mining caused an asbestos emergency in this small town.
environmental disasters

The Hole in the Ozone Layer Above Antarctica Might Be Healing Itself

Progress.
Erik Shilling July 1, 2016
The banded, colorful cliffs
Nevada City, California

Malakoff Diggins

The beauty and the beast of hydraulic mining is on full display at this California Historic State Park.
IJsseloog
Dronten, Netherlands

IJsseloog

This artificial ring island was built to hold cubic tons of polluted dirt.