Nazi chemical weapons leaking into the Baltic Sea
- On 27/04/2014
- In Dangerous Places for Shipping
- 0 comments
By Johnny Duggan - Riot News
Next May marks the 70th anniversary of V-E day and the end of the second World War. During the post-war Potsdam Conference, it was mutually agreed upon by the Allies that the remaining 65 tonnes of Nazi chemical weapons would be disposed of in the Baltic Sea.
While their intentions were certainly good, it was clearly a decision made without a complete consideration of the long-term ramifications of such a method.
Now, those sunken stockpiles may be stirring up huge problems from their watery resting place.
Here’s what we know about them, what we don’t, and what kind of problems we could be facing.
65,000 tonnes roughly measures out to about 143 million pounds. To put that in perspective, it’s like having nearly 1,800 big-rig 18 wheelers just lying on the ocean floor.
But instead of hauling some type of consumer cargo, those trucks are filled with deadly chemicals and explosives.
The agreement reached during the Potsdam Conference stipulated that the weapons be dumped into the (relatively shallow) Baltic Sea. However, this stipulation wasn’t exactly followed to the letter.
Allegedly, Soviet ships would dump the weapons as soon as they were no longer visible from land, as opposed to disposing of them in the designated areas.
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