14/08/2024
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So many second world war ships and planes were sunk around Savo Island in months of conflict between the US and Japan, that this stretch of the Pacific Ocean earned the new name Iron Bottom Sound. Decades later, the wrecks remain and so do their contents and cargos, including toxic chemicals from ammunition, explosives, and fuel. As they corrode and leak in the deep waters off this part of the Solomon Islands archipelago, chemicals such as heavy metals and hydrocarbons leach into the marine environment. These possess possible risks to the surrounding ecosystems and perhaps even human health. Iron Bottom Sound is just one example of a growing global problem. From Hawaii to the Baltic Sea, researchers are working against the clock to understand the risk to the marine environment posed by these legacy munitions – and what should be done about them. Many were put into the ocean deliberately, to dispose of unused stocks at the end of conflicts. “They have been dumping munitions in the ocean for a long time,” says Margo Edwards, director of the Applied Research Laboratory at the University of Hawaii, who has studied the problem. There these weapons have largely lain undisturbed for almost a century, but fishing and other marine activities such as offshore wind power are now increasingly intruding on the sites. And as the munitions corrode, the risk of environmental contamination grows year by year. “It’s kind of our modern life expanding into a decision that was made back in the 1940s, and even prior to that, that’s causing this conflict,” says Edwards.
Bracing for disaster
In some cases, leftover munitions are well known landmarks. The US wreck SS Richard Montgomery, for example, has lain in shallow water in the Thames estuary about 50 miles east of London since it ran aground in a storm in 1944. With its masts clearly visible above the often choppy water, the stricken vessel is laden with an estimated 1,400 tonnes of unexploded ordnance. An assessment in 1970 found that if this blew up, it would trigger a tsunami large enough to engulf the nearby town of Sheerness. But in many cases, the scale and exact location of the underwater hazards remain unknown. Records have been lost or were never made in the first place. Anxious sailors tasked with disposing of the dangerous leftovers often tipped them into the sea as soon as possible. For years, the problem has been out of sight and out of mind. But, some experts say, that is no longer the right approach. The metal canisters and boxes that hold many of the dumped explosives have been steadily corroding and are now at increased risk of leakage. If significant numbers were to give way simultaneously, or in a short space of time, that could cause a serious pollution event. At the very least, researchers say, we need better surveys and monitoring so that the level of risk can be properly assessed. All the mechanisms are in place for a huge environmental disaster,” says Jacek Beldowski, a geochemist working with ocean-dumped munitions at the Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences. “Everything depends on the rate of corrosion, and will it be simultaneous or not?”
Assessing the environmental risk
The environmental threat from unexploded undersea munitions comes in two forms. The first is discarded chemical weapons, including mustard agents, used to generate the kind of poison gas that caused terror in the trenches of the first world war. These agents, and breakdown products such as arsenic, are toxic to sea life and accumulate in the larvae of fish and shellfish. The second comes from ingredients of conventional explosives, including TNT. These are known to cause cancer and so scientists cannot set a “safe” level of exposure. “Both are persistent point sources of contamination at the bottom of the sea and they’re releasing toxic constituents,” says Beldowski, who has seen the situation first hand in the Baltic Sea. “We’ve got something like 40,000 tonnes of chemical munitions in the Baltic, and maybe half a million tonnes of conventional munitions,” he says. “It’s easier to identify chemical munition if it is corroded because you see the bursting charge, which was in the middle to spray the warfare agents around.”
Photo-Source: dialogue.earth
Biography of a Bomb
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