Beyond its massive human and financial cost, the ongoing war in Iraq has also
had an impact on the environment. Recently, UMBC volcano expert Simon Carn led
a group of earth scientists to study how an explosion at a sulfur plant near
Mosul, Iraq produced pollution rivaling one of the most powerful volcanic
eruptions in recent history.
On June 24, 2003, dense clouds of sulfur dioxide were produced by an explosion
at the Al-Mishraq State Sulfur Plant when arsonists set massive amounts of the
gas ablaze. The fire burned for nearly a month, causing widespread respiratory
problems in residents and at least two deaths, and by the time it was
extinguished, its sulfur dioxide emissions equaled more than half of those
released by the 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens.
"That's nearly 30 times as much as the most polluting power plants release in
a year," said Carn, a research associate at UMBC's Joint Center for Earth
Systems Technology (JCET). "It was the largest man-made release of
polluting
sulfur dioxide ever recorded."
Carn and his team probed the 800-mile plume for 18 days, taking measurements
of the emissions based on data collected from TOMS, located on NASA's Earth
Probe satellite. Composite photos of the sulfur clouds were also taken from
the Aqua and Terra satellites, showing the concentration of polluting gases
and the plume that stretched as far as Syria, Iran, Azerbaijan and the Persian
Gulf.
The explosion ultimately cost the region $20 million in refined sulfur and $40
million in local crops, and would have seriously damaged surrounding villages
and released dangerous pollutants in the Tigris river had it not been
contained. Despite its immediate consequences, scientists speculate that the
fire will not have long-lasting effects on the environment.
As part of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) volcanic emissions
research group Carn helps develop techniques to detect volcanic
gases and activity using satellite monitoring systems.
Carn's team announced
their findings in the Oct. 29 issue of Geophysical
Research Letters. The research was also featured in Nature News
on October 25, 2004.
In the future, the team hopes to monitor coal-burning power plants using an
Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), which can track smaller amounts of sulfur
dioxide discharge. "With actual measurements, we can find out if a power plant
is putting out more sulfur dioxide than it says," said Carn. Information from
OMI, which is based on NASA's Aura satellite, is expected to reach the team in
the next few months.
(2/14/05)
