At 12: 04 am on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck the Bligh Reef, less than 2 miles off the coast of Alaska.
In the remote waters of the Gulf of Alaska, the tanker hemorrhaged some 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean.
An ill-timed storm followed, spreading out the oil along Alaska’s shoreline. Numerous countless animals passed away, and even after billions of dollars invested in clean-up efforts, the environment stays polluted by oil.
At the time, Exxon Valdez was the worst catastrophe of its kind in United States history. However today, the spill hardly fractures the list of the 40 worst tanker oil spills around the globe, according to the International Tanker Owners Contamination Federation (ITOPF)
The Gulf oil spill– often called the Deepwater Horizon or BP spill– off the coast of Louisiana blew the Exxon Valdez record out of the water. That catastrophe put some 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico throughout 87 days in between April and July2010 A location the size of Rhode Island was shut off from fishing, and regional economies tanked And yet these 2 United States catastrophes still fade in contrast to a few of their worldwide equivalents.
Here are 13 of the most destructive manufactured ocean catastrophes in history.
