In the early morning hours of December 22, 2008, the earthen wall of a containment pond at Tennessee’s Kingston Fossil Plant gave way. The breach released 1.3 million cubic meters (1.7 cubic yards) of sludge, infiltrating a nearby river and damaging dozens of homes.
Published Jan 6, 2009Landsat images show that waterways near Noril’sk blushed red long before they achieved internet virality in 2016.
Published Sep 15, 2016On April 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear power accident occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the Ukrainian-Belarus border. Toxic radionuclides like Cs137 and Sr90 contaminated an area of 155,000 square kilometers in what is today Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, sickened from radiation-induced illnesses, or resettled to uncontaminated land. This image, taken from the Russian Mir spacecraft, shows Chernobyl and the surrounding countryside.
Published Apr 26, 2004The 500-megawatt Núñez de Balboa photovoltaic plant in Spain will supply energy to 250,000 people per year.
Published Mar 7, 2020A pair of false-color and natural-color images acquired March 21, 2010, show flooding in agricultural areas north of Fargo, North Dakota.
Published Mar 24, 2010A representation of the pressure local populations put on their ecosystem, this map shows how much plant matter people need for food and other products compared to the amount of plant material produced in each region.
Published Dec 15, 2010