Figure 3 - uploaded by Kevin Kiernan
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Bravo Crater, a crater over 2 km wide produced by nuclear weapons testing in the karstic Marshall Islands.
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Humanitarian concerns generally predominate when the harmful effects of armed conflict are considered. However, armed conflict also typically implies considerable damage also being inflicted upon the environment. When the biology and physical landscapes around theatres of war are damaged, not only does that degrade natural environmental values, but...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima followed less than two months after the first testing of that weapon, so further refinement and testing of atomic bombs was still desired, and these tests generated major impacts on some caves and karst environments (Merlin & Gonzalez 2010). At Bikini Atoll, drilling to a depth of 780 m revealed the subsurface to consist almost entirely of limestone including cavernous zones (O'Emerey and others 1954), and physical damage to the karst caused by testing there is most dramatically illustrated by the complete obliteration of three islands to form the Bravo Crater ( Figure 3), which is over 2 km wide and 80 m deep (ROMI 2010). Other karstic sites used for nuclear testing have included Maralinga, in the Nullarbor karst of Australia (Cooper and others 1994, Johansen and others 2014, Parkinson 2004, Tynan 2016 and Muroroa Atoll in the South Pacific. ...
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Citations
... Ecological data can offer evidence of direct and indirect anthropogenic impacts on caves. In many cases our estimates of when former large colonies had disappeared tallied with other factors, such as the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam during surveys in areas where it was known to be used, as well as other war related uses (Kiernan 2021). Combining multiple kinds of data can help demonstrate the lasting legacy of largescale anthropogenic phenomena. ...
Theoretical, methodological and applied aspects of assessment of loss and damage to soil resources are considered. As of 24 February 2023 the cost was of the order of $US 34.4 billion but this is provisional and dynamic. Bibliometric analysis suggests inadequate attention to the issue of assessing the impact of wars on soil and land quality and determining loss and damage. This is a first attempt to plug the gap and encourage further work on the methodology, as well as the assessment of just compensation to ensure the restoration of war-damaged soils.
