Mine reclamation is the process of changing land that has been mined so it can be helpful for nature or useful for people. Even though this process happens after mining is finished, planning for reclamation may begin before a mine is approved or started. Mine reclamation creates landscapes that can help restore natural areas or provide resources for industry and communities.
Fracking, also called hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking, is a method used to help oil, gas, or water flow more easily from deep underground rock layers. This process uses high-pressure liquid, called “fracking fluid,” which is mostly water mixed with sand or other materials that keep cracks open. The liquid is injected into a well to create small cracks in the rock, allowing natural gas, petroleum, and brine (a type of salty water) to move more freely.
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), also known as the Bakken pipeline, is an underground pipeline in the United States that is 1,172 miles long (about 1,886 kilometers). It can carry up to 750,000 barrels of light sweet crude oil each day. The pipeline starts in the oil fields of the Bakken Formation in northwest North Dakota.
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is an oil transportation system in Alaska. It includes the trans-Alaska crude-oil pipeline, 12 pump stations, hundreds of miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one of the largest pipeline systems in the world.
The Amoco Cadiz oil spill happened on March 16, 1978, when the oil tanker Amoco Cadiz, owned by the American company Amoco, hit rocks near Portsall Rocks, which are 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the coast of Brittany, France. The ship broke into three pieces and sank. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the spill released 220,880 tonnes of oil, which is equal to about 58 million gallons or 256.2 million liters.
The Santa Barbara oil spill happened in January and February 1969 in the Santa Barbara Channel, near the city of Santa Barbara in Southern California. At the time, it was the largest oil spill in United States waters. It is still the largest oil spill to occur in the waters off California.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an environmental disaster that began on April 20, 2010, off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. Scientists estimate it was 8 to 31 percent larger in volume than the previous largest spill, the Ixtoc I oil spill, which also occurred in the Gulf of Mexico.
On 11 March 2011, radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan began being released into the Pacific Ocean. This happened after a nuclear disaster caused by the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Three of the plant’s reactors experienced meltdowns, leaving behind melted fuel debris.
On 11 March 2011, a major nuclear accident began at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The main reason was the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which caused the power supply to fail and damaged most of the power plant’s backup energy sources. This made it difficult to cool the reactors after they shut down, leading to the release of radioactive materials into the environment.
On April 26, 1986, reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near Pripyat, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), exploded. The disaster caused many deaths and health problems, making it one of only two nuclear accidents rated as the worst on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The other was the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.