»disaster«

William Broad investigates for the NY Times (15.4.2008) whether the Titanic sank in 1912 because the ship's builder used not the best available material for the thousands of rivets but second choice.

In October 1957 the first major accident in a nuclear power plant occurred at the Windscale site (today: Sellafield). Marcus Franken and Manfred Kriener remember in Die Zeit (4.10.2007) the catastrophe that released much radioactivity into the environment. They describe the course of events, what the operators did, how they tried to cool the reactor and finally tamed the machine. More than 70 investigations have been filed. Researchers estimate the death toll due to the 20.000 curie radiation released with some 100 additional cancer cases.

How many people died in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster? Stefan Schmitt doesn't answer the important question in his report for Spiegel online (18.4.2006) but weights the different studies against each other. Depending on their point of view proponents of nuclear energy count little numbers of victims, 56 the IAEO (International Atomic Energy Organisation), 93,000 as estimated by opponents like Greenpeace, or some 50.000 to 100.000 by the IPPNW. Some confusion to the issue was brought up last autumn by a report of WHO, IAEO and UNDP saying that roughly 4000 will have died by the disaster altogether -- although the study's main investigator for the WHO, Elisabeth Cardis, calculated some 9000 victims in total.

Pictures of the Omi instrument at Nasa's Aura satellite show the smoke level over Europe. Actually, the instrument adds up all the nitrous oxide in an air column of 10 km above ground. As estimated levels above industrial hot spots are highest. Red is high concentration. Image (c) KNMI
[Correction: The data-processed picture of 14. December does not show the smoke plume of the oil tank fire near London. Investigator Richard Friebe was told that scientists who do the data-processing and modelling of Omi satellite data may not track the smoke plume of the fire.]

Jacopo Pasotti writes in Science online (5.12.2006) about evidence that a huge tsunami occurred in the Mediterranean Sea some 8000 years ago. "The Mediterranean basin is a crucible of killer waves. More than 300 tsunamis have been recorded in the last 3300 years, with volcanic activity known to have triggered a dozen in the last two millennia. The most recent occurred in December 2002, when a colossal chunk of the Stromboli volcano slid into the Aeolian Sea, creating a 10-meter-high tsunami that snapped moorings of oil tankers in Milazzo harbor, 100 kilometers away, but did little other damage," writes Pasotti.

With the burning oil depot north of London producing one of the largest ever fires, Mark Peplow investigates for Nature online (12.12.2005) about countermeasures, environmental and health effects. "This is the largest fire of its kind that we in the UK, and in Europe, have dealt with," a fire officer says. The fire is fuelled by "up to 270 million litres of kerosene, diesel and gasoline, held in 20 storage tanks on the site."

Health effects are small, but relevant for people with respiratory problems like asthma. Also environmental effects are small. There's nothing in the smoke that isn't already in the atmosphere, an expert says. A problem might be the chemicals of the foam used by the firemen. These should be collected by reservoirs. Also the water could wash out past contaminations of the area.
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/051212-2.html