I read an interesting article about how even though the islands themselves are worthless (Radiation extremely strong in the coconuts growing there and such)… the coral around the Bikini Atoll actually is regrowing at a great rate.
What does a coral reef look like 50 years after being nuked? Not so bad, it seems. Coconuts growing on Bikini Atoll haven’t fared so well, however.
Three islands of Bikini Atoll were vapourised by the Bravo hydrogen bomb in 1954, which shook islands 200 kilometres away. Instead of finding a bare underwater moonscape, ecologists who have dived it have given the 2-kilometre-wide crater a clean bill of health.
“It was fascinating – I’ve never seen corals growing like trees outside of the Marshall Islands,” says Zoe Richards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia.
Richards and colleagues report a thriving ecosystem of 183 species of coral, some of which were 8 metres high. They estimate that the diversity of species represents about 65% of what was present before the atomic tests.
They go in more detail in the article, but I thought it interesting that basically life protected by the water as flourished. I’m now curious though… Any mutations in the sea-life there? Is the coral really sort of living like cancer there unchecked?
Tags: Environment, Interesting, Nature, Nuclear, War
