Oil Spills in the Arctic Tundra

On 29th May 2020 17,500 tonnes of diesel spilled into a nearby river from a tank at a power-plant near Norsilk (Russia). This oil-spill contaminated an area of 350 sq km. and experts believe that it will take more than 10 years to clear the mess!

Due to global warming Russia’s Tundra region in the Arctic is facing warmer summers. So the permafrost softened and the tanks support (which had been good for the last 30 years) were damaged which caused the spill!

A naive approach to visualize the spill & the oil tank that caused it (using EO imagery)

Image of the oil tank. Source: Google Maps

The oil tank above stood on the Arctic perma-frost for 30+ years.

Over the year, there were a few complaints made to the company management. However due to the remote location, the company knew that no one from the top management would bother about looking it up.

The incident was highlighted to authorities via social media posts made by concerned citizens

Kremlin was alerted of the spill when pictures of the spill went viral on social media

The change in color was so drastic, that you could visualize them via satellite images taken via Sentinel-1

The river as seen from Sentinel-1 images a few weeks before the incident (processed on Sentinel-Hub)

The overhead imagery as seen post the spill (processed via Sentinel-Hub)

This incident highlights the danger of global warming. But it also shows the power of social media for highlighting local problems at the global level.

Citizen-journalism at its best!