Texas A&M Oceanographers Warn Millions of Unexploded Bombs in Gulf of Mexico Threaten Shipping Lanes, Oil Rigs
Posted on September 28, 2012
William Bryant and Neil Slowey, oceanography professors from Texas A&M University, are warning that tons of unexploded bombs in the Gulf of Mexico pose a serious threats to shipping lanes and the 4,000 oil and gas rigs in the Gulf.
The professors say there were million of pounds of unexploded bombs and other military ordinance dumped in the Gulf decades ago. A crab is sitting on a mustard gas canister that appears to be leaking in the above photograph.
The professors say millions of pounds of bombs are scattered over the Gulf of Mexico and also off the coasts of at least 16 states, from New Jersey to Hawaii. Military dumping of unused bombs in the Gulf occurred from 1946 until 1970, when the practice was banned. Some of the unused bombs (called UXO or unexploded ordnance by the military) are 1,000-pound explosives the size of file cabinets. The military weapons also included chemical weapon canisters, such as the mustard gas canister in the photo.
Professor Bryant said in a statement, "The best guess is that at least 31 million pounds of bombs were dumped, but that could be a very conservative estimate. And these were all kinds of bombs, from land mines to the standard military bombs, also several types of chemical weapons. Our military also dumped bombs offshore that they got from Nazi Germany right after World War II. No one seems to know where all of them are and what condition they are in today."