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Investigators probe 'possible ecological catastrophe' in Russia's Kamchatka region
Russian investigators said Saturday they were looking into “a possible ecological catastrophe” in the eastern Kamchatka region, after scores of dead sea creatures washed up in one of it bays and surfers reported burns to their eyes and throats.
Images of dead seals, octopi, starfish and urchins on the Khalaktyrsky Beach in the Avacha Bay have been shared on social media for several days.
Surfers in the area have also complained that the sea had an unnatural smell and color.
Images of Kamchatka
Inaccessible even to Russian citizens until the 1990s, the Kamchatka Peninsula encompasses an area of pristine wilderness larger than the British Isles.
With the highest concentration of active volcanoes of anywhere in the world, this remote region of Far East Russia is a literal hotspot of geothermal activity, earning it the moniker of the ‘land of fire and ice’.
The 1,200km long peninsula is also a haven for wildlife, including Kamchatkan brown bears – there are more bears than people in Kamchatka – sea otters and a variety of seabird species.
Hundreds of thousands of migratory birds found dead in New Mexico, mystifying scientists. ... Dead migratory birds -- which include species such as warblers, bluebirds, sparrows, blackbirds, the western wood pewee and flycatchers -- are also being found in Colorado, Texas and Mexico.Sep 16, 2020
Hundreds of Whales Die in Mass Stranding in Australia
Nearly 500 pilot whales were stranded off the coast of Tasmania last week, in what officials say is the largest mass stranding event in Australian history
www.smithsonianmag.com...
originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Alphasan
That's what I was going to say.
What's going on with the volcanic activity here? That region has lots of volcanoes and those systems are remote and I'm not sure how well-monitored they. Certainly the one under the sea would likely not be very well watched.
It's not out of the question that we're seeing something rumbling to life out there, and if it's causing that magnitude of impact, then if it doesn't settle down, the whole planet will regret the eventual outcome.
The Siberian Traps (Russian: Сибирские траппы, Sibirskiye trappy) is a large region of volcanic rock, known as a large igneous province, in Siberia, Russia. The massive eruptive event that formed the traps is one of the largest known volcanic events in the last 500 million years.
The eruptions continued for roughly two million years and spanned the Permian–Triassic boundary, or P–T boundary, which occurred between 251 to 250 million years ago.
Large volumes of basaltic lava covered a large expanse of Siberia in a flood basalt event. Today, the area is covered by about 7 million km2 (3 million sq mi) of basaltic rock, with a volume of around 4 million km3 (1 million cu mi).
One of the major questions is whether the Siberian Traps were directly responsible for the Permian–Triassic mass extinction event that occurred 250 million years ago, or if they were themselves caused by some other, larger event, such as an asteroid impact. A recent hypothesis put forward is that the volcanism triggered the growth of Methanosarcina, a microbe that then spewed enormous amounts of methane into Earth's atmosphere, ultimately altering the Earth's carbon cycle based on observations such as a significant increase of inorganic carbon reservoirs in marine environments.
This extinction event, also colloquially called the Great Dying, affected all life on Earth, and is estimated to have killed about 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species living at the time. Some of the disastrous events that impacted the Earth continued to repeat themselves on Earth five to six million years after the initial extinction occurred. Over time a small portion of the life that survived the extinction was able to repopulate and expand starting with low trophic levels (local communities) until the higher trophic levels (large habitats) were able to be re-established. Calculations of sea water temperature from δ18O measurements indicate that at the peak of the extinction, the Earth underwent lethally hot global warming, in which equatorial ocean temperatures exceeded 40 °C (104 °F). It took roughly eight to nine million years for any diverse ecosystem to be re-established; however, new classes of animals were established after the extinction that did not exist beforehand.
For example, the eruption of Laki in 1783-84, which is regarded by many geologists as a small flood basalt eruption, created a lava flow field of about 15 km3 in 8 months (common sizes of modern eruptions are less than 0.1 km3), and released about 120 million tons of sulfur dioxide (about three times the annual industrial output in Europe in 2016), triggering temperature drops in Europe of about 1-3°C. The cooling resulted in bad winters and summers leading to poverty and famine in Europe and the death of thousands of people, while famine and fluoride poisoning of the surface waters in Iceland caused the death of over 50% of the livestock.
originally posted by: Antipathy17
a reply to: LookingAtMars
reported as a commercial tanker by a google recommended website. panpacificagency.com...
MOSCOW, Oct 4, 2020, TASS. Poisoning of water in the area of Khalaktyrsky beach in Russia’s Kamchatka region, according to preliminary data, was caused by oil products leak from a commercial tanker, which was eliminated. The ownership of the vessel has not yet been established, a source in the emergency services of the Far East region told TASS on Saturday (Oct 3).
“According to preliminary data, a commercial tanker followed the sea route along the beach with a leak, which was eliminated but led to a spill of oil products containing phenol. The vessel’s ownership has not yet been established, a search is underway,” the source said.
Surfers in the area have also complained that the sea had an unnatural smell and color.
Volcanoes of Kamchatka
This is one of the most outstanding volcanic regions in the world, with a high density of active volcanoes, a variety of types, and a wide range of related features. The six sites included in the serial designation group together the majority of volcanic features of the Kamchatka peninsula. The interplay of active volcanoes and glaciers forms a dynamic landscape of great beauty. The sites contain great species diversity, including the world's largest known variety of salmonoid fish and exceptional concentrations of sea otter, brown bear and Stellar's sea eagle.