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  RECENT WORLD CALAMITIES

The word calamity, what does it mean to you? Government 

may see the H1n1 outbreak as a calamity, businessmen may see a

sudden recession as a calamity, and students may see being punished

for not doing their homework a calamity. So what does calamityactually mean?According to the Oxford dictionary, the word

calamity actually means an event causing great and often sudden

damage or distress; a disaster. Simple way of saying it, calamities are

natural or man made disasters that happens everyday and effects

innocent people who are at the wrong place at the wrong time.

A calamity such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of 

Mexico on the 20th April 2010 was devastating; it has marked a deep

scar in history. This oil spill incident was the largest marine oil spill

in the history of petroleum history. The explosion of the wellhead

caused the release of 4.9 million barrels of crude oil over 6500 to 180000km and the death of 13 platform workers.

During March and early April, several platform workers and

supervisors expressed concerns with well control. At approximately

9:45 p.m. CDT on April 20, 2010, methane gas from the well, under

high pressure, shot all the way up and out of the drill column,

expanded onto the platform, and then ignited and exploded.

BP estimated the worst case-flow at 162,000 barrels per day.

The spill caused extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats as

well as the Gulfs fishing and tourism industries. Scientists have also

reported immense underwater plumes of dissolved oil not visible at the surface.

Crews have been working hard to protect hundreds and miles

of beaches, wetlands and estuaries along the northern Gulf coast,

using barricades, skimmer ships and containment booms along the

shorelines. Many short-term efforts to stem the flow of oil were

carried and has been reported successful. Three basic approaches to

remove the oil from the water have been carried out, they are

burning the oil, filtering offshore, and collecting for later process

However, spilled oil naturally disperses via storms, currents

and osmosis with the passage of a long time, this in time coulddamage more aquatic life.  

Another harsh catastrophe was the volcano eruptions of 

Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. The eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull was a

sequence of volcanic eruptions which caused enormous disruption to

air travel across western and northern Europe over and initial period

of six days in April.

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JUST AN ADDITION:

The Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull

Flooding in northern china