THE ATLANTIC EMPRESS SINKING—A LARGE SPILL WITHOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER

1981 ◽  
Vol 1981 (1) ◽  
pp. 429-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart A. Horn ◽  
Captain Phillip Neal

ABSTRACT At 1900 hours on July 19, 1979, the 288,000-deadweight-ton (dwt) Atlantic Empress and the 207,000-dwt Aegean Captain collided in the Caribbean Sea. In the fiery aftermath of the accident, 27 crewmen lost their lives. There was a strong possibility that a total of 3.5 million barrels of crude oil would be spilled; this would have been the largest spill to that time. Nearby islands with their tourist beaches and coral reefs were threatened. And yet, even though the Atlantic Empress eventually sank after burning for 14 days, no oil came ashore and no indications of any environmental damage were observed. This paper provides a chronicle of the events of the days following the collision, including (1) activation of the Clean Caribbean Cooperative equipment stockpile, (2) airlifting 13 planeloads of ftrefighting foam, oil transfer gear, dispersants and pollution control equipment, (3) assembling an expert response team with an operation based on Trinidad, (4) providing four single-engine aircraft dispersant-spraying capability, and (5) mounting a major firefighting effort on board the burning ship. The Atlantic Empress was the largest ship ever to sink. However, through a coordinated response effort and considerable assistance from natural forces, no harmful pollution resulted.

Author(s):  
Juan Armando Sánchez M.

Through SCUBA and skin diving various shallow water ecosystems (rocky shores, soft bottoms and coral reefs, 0-30 m deep) were surveyed to collect telestaceans and penatulaceans octocorals; the areas considered were Cartagena, the Rosario islands, Tierra Bomba island, Barú island, San Bernardo islands, Bushnell and Salmedina banks, Capurgana and Zapzurro harbours (8°20,-10°45, N; 75°50,-77°251 W), the Santa Marta area (11°14,50" N; 74°15, W) y and the Guajira (11 °56,58" N; 72°16'18" W), Colombian Caribbean. Stylatula diadema Bayer (Virgulariidae: Pennatulacea) is first recorded for the Caribbean sea and has been found inhabiting soft sand bottoms between 25 and 30 m, at the outer end of Cartagena Bay and the Mangles Bank in San Bernardo islands. The geographic distribution of Carijoa riisei (Duchassaing y Michelotti) (Telestidae: Telestacea) was widen from the Caribbean and Colombia, it has been found in a broad bathymetric range (0.5-30 m) in all the habitats surveyed. Few records of telestaceans and pennatulaceans in this region, as in the rest of the Caribbean, suggest that the octocorallian fauna is mostly represented by gorgonians than by other orders, and shows an inverse relationship with the Indopacific fauna, where the alcyonaceans are the dominant order.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arie Herlambang

Basically, nature has the ability to perform the restoration of environmental damage caused by increased human activity, but because of the limited carrying capacity, then the environment has decreased the quality from year to year. In saving the environment, technology plays a role in reducing the risk of pollution, increased efi siensi process, and creating processes and environmentall friendly products, monitoring and prediction of environment quality, environmental pollution control, restoration and environmental improvement. Waste Technology (end of pipe technology) are widely used to cope with environmental pollution, both for liquid waste, solid and air. Waste processing technology developed for the waste can be in accordance with quality standards thathave been established, while monitoring technology has been developed either manually or automatically. For recovery and improvement of technology has been developed remedies and restoration that rely on bacteria in nature.Keywords: end of pipe technology, reuse, recycle, reduce (3R), carrying capacity, and environment pollution


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-128
Author(s):  
Wenjun Yan

Abstract In 2015, the All-China Environment Federation v Dezhou Jinghua Group Zhenhua Corporation Limited case was the first civil environmental public interest litigation (CEPIL) against air pollution in China. Constituting a milestone in the field of air pollution control in China, this case (i) confirms the eligibility of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to file civil public interest litigations; (ii) discusses remedies for the ecological destruction caused by air pollution; (iii) assesses the ecological and environmental damage using the ‘virtual restoration cost’ method; and (iv) uses public apology as an innovative way for Zhenhua to assume liability. By applying and interpreting several important rules under the Environmental Protection Law of China (EPLC) for the first time, this case sets an example for future CEPILs against air pollution in China.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 508-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto M. Mestas‐Nuñez ◽  
Peter Molnar
Keyword(s):  
Ice Age ◽  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa C. McManus ◽  
Daniel L. Forrest ◽  
Edward W. Tekwa ◽  
Daniel E. Schindler ◽  
Madhavi A. Colton ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1939
Author(s):  
Tao Xian ◽  
Gaopeng Lu ◽  
Hongbo Zhang ◽  
Yongping Wang ◽  
Shaolin Xiong ◽  
...  

The thermal structure of the environmental atmosphere associated with Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) is investigated with the combined observations from several detectors (FERMI, RHESSI, and Insight-HXMT) and GNSS-RO (SAC-C, COSMIC, GRACE, TerraSAR-X, and MetOp-A). The geographic distributions of TGF-related tropopause altitude and climatology are similar. The regional TGF-related tropopause altitude in Africa and the Caribbean Sea is 0.1–0.4 km lower than the climatology, whereas that in Asia is 0.1–0.2 km higher. Most of the TGF-related tropopause altitudes are slightly higher than the climatology, while some of them have a slightly negative bias. The subtropical TGF-producing thunderstorms are warmer in the troposphere and have a colder and higher tropopause over land than the ocean. There is no significant land–ocean difference in the thermal structure for the tropical TGF-producing thunderstorms. The TGF-producing thunderstorms have a cold anomaly in the middle and upper troposphere and have stronger anomalies than the deep convection found in previous studies.


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