How Hitler's U-Boats Are Still Attacking Us

[mookiemookie]

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has some fresh news from World War II: 13 Merchant Marine ships sunk by the German navy in the Battle of the Atlantic threaten to release oil from their watery graves.

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marb...oil-leak-uboat

Makes you wonder what other hazardous cargoes are still sitting on the bottom, with as many ships that were sunk in WW2.

[Gerald]

Well I know that both cargo and mines and other (mostly mines) and emissions of various kinds), like mustard gas in rusty containers in Baltic northern Atlantic and Med.After both World Wars.

[August]

There's a lot more of it littering European and Pacific coastlines at similar levels of deterioration.

[desertstriker]

doesnt really surprise me . I think i read a report once where they sometimes have to go down and look at wrecks in special wet/dry suits because of toxic stuff in many cases they try to use ROVs that then have to go through major cleaning

[kranz]

13 merchants you say?

between 40,000 and 60,000 tonnes of chemicals (V-gases, sarin, tabun, soman etc) at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. These are remains after WWII and Soviet experiments in the 1950's.

[Jimbuna]

The cargo of mercury carried by U-864 will probably be amongst the most dangerous I should imagine.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The cargo of mercury carried by U-864 will probably be amongst the most dangerous I should imagine.

If the mercury stays undisturbed it will stay in the outline of the ship after the steel completely rusts away.Mercury because it is so heavy tends to settle so was it stays put it only a hazard at the exact point it rests.It would be very serious if it gets disturbed though.

I have a friend that helps a university study the effects of pollution in rivers.We where discussing once how a local river has become "cleaner" over the last 20 years.He informed me that the fact of the matter was that the mercury did not go away(nor did the other heavy metals) it simply settled on the bottom.In many parts of this river the government bans the disturbance of the bottom as a result they can not dredge certain areas.One of his jobs is to help measure mercury levels so they can keep track of its movement.

I would put money on the pollutants in oceans that came from drainage from factories which drained into lakes and rivers all that mercury and lead and such is far more dangerous than the sunken merchant ships.All that runoff from factories it surely makes what is in those old holds look like a drop in the bucket.Of course it is still a problem because these old holds would break and harm new areas.Imagine what just one leak might do if it happened to be in a heavily fished area.It would be shut down and cost billions.

[desertstriker]

don't forget the lead acid batteries in all the U-boats

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The cargo of mercury carried by U-864 will probably be amongst the most dangerous I should imagine.

I'd say that the ammunition ship sitting in shallow water in the Thames estuary loaded with about 1400 tonnes of unstable explosives would be a bit more dangerous.

[Stealhead]

Originally Posted by Oberon

I'd say that the ammunition ship sitting in shallow water in the Thames estuary loaded with about 1400 tonnes of unstable explosives would be a bit more dangerous.

You'd think they would have done something about that by now it being in such a dangerous heavy traffic location and not hard to get to. Of course I am expected a government to do something useful and that is asking a lot.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

You'd think they would have done something about that by now it being in such a dangerous heavy traffic location and not hard to get to. Of course I am expected a government to do something useful and that is asking a lot.

Precisely