Explosions at Nord Stream lifted tons of toxins from the bottom of the Baltic — EADaily, March 17, 2023 — Politics, Russian News

Explosions at Nord Stream occurred near a World War II chemical weapons dump and raised toxins from the bottom to such a depth that they threatened marine life for more than a month. Scientists at the Danish Aarhus University, led by Hans Sanderson, told The Nature magazine about this.

“Scientists used data from decades of rainfall monitoring in the navigable part of the Bornholm basin and a hydrological model of sediment movement to figure out the impact of explosions, each of which was equivalent to 500 kg of TNT. Their models showed that explosions that occurred at a depth of 70 meters raised 250,000 . tons of precipitation to a level of 30 meters below the water surface”, writes The Nature.

Scientists have calculated that the sediment with a level of toxins above the norm lasted 15 days after the explosions at Nord Stream at a depth of 53-95 meters, and after sabotage at Nord Stream 2 – 34 days at a depth of 42-78 meters. In total, 11 cubic kilometers of sea water turned out to be poisoned for more than a month because of the explosions.

Scientist Hans Sanderson believes that the effects of toxins on marine life will not be visible for months, if not years. But this does not change the essence of the matter.

“This could potentially have a pretty significant impact on cod stocks. And the presence of toxins is not good news for these organisms, he says. The explosions occurred at the end of the cod spawning season, when the eggs float at depths that the sediment has reached.” writes The Nature.

Among other possible victims of the Nord Stream explosions, Danish scientists see porpoises. There are only 500 of them left in the Baltic Sea.

“The loss of even one of them will affect this population. It is possible that the explosions damaged the porpoises’ hearing and therefore their ability to communicate.” – Danish scientists believe.

As reported EADaily in March, the American and German media, citing national intelligence, reported that sabotage on the Nord Stream could be carried out by some pro-Ukrainian group whose connection with Kiev is unknown.

Moscow rejected this version, believing that the world community is being distracted from what actually happened. At the end of February, American journalist Seymour Hersh published an investigation into Nord Stream. Sources told the Pulitzer Prize winner that the US organized and carried out the operation with support from Norway. During summer exercises, explosives were planted on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, and they activated them by dropping beacons from an aircraft.