The launch of a new rocket is always an exciting event. SpaceX’s ‘go fast and fail’ approach means that even though the test ended with engineers blowing up the rocket, it was a valuable first flight.
Les eaux du lac Nyos, au Cameroun, virent au brun foncé suite à une fuite mortelle de gaz toxique.
Thierry Orban/Sygma via Getty Images
Le Cameroun compte de nombreux lacs potentiellement dangereux qui contient du gaz. Pourtant, on a fait que très peu pour atténuer les risques qui en découlent.
The waters of Lake Nyos, Cameroon, turn a murky brown following a deadly release of toxic gas.
Photo by Thierry Orban/Sygma via Getty Images
Tsunamis aren’t just bigger-than-average waves. Triggered by undersea earthquakes or volcanic eruptions like the one in Tonga, they are fast, massive and potentially destructive. Here’s why.
When water and boiling oil mix, the result can be explosive, as seen in this demonstration.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Travis Alston/Released via Flickr
Deep-fried turkeys are delicious, but making one can be dangerous. The scientific reason for fiery Thanksgiving mishaps? A difference in the densities of ice, water and oil.
Men cross the front of the still smoking lava rocks from an eruption of the Mount Nyiragongo on May 23, 2021 in Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
GUERCHOM NDEBO/AFP via Getty Images
Nyiragongo is one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of its fast-moving lava. It can flow at a speed of about 100km per hour.
A lorry trailer carries the coffins of the victims of a munitions explosion in Brazzaville, the Congolese capital, in 2012.
Junior D. Kannah/AFP via Getty Images
It’s not only nuclear bomb tests that disrupt the atmosphere, there are a number of natural events that can do the same. But how long does any damage last?
Recent pipeline explosions have brought the problem of Mexico’s black market for oil into tragic relief.
The explosive eruption of Sarychev Volcano, on Russia’s Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan, seen from the International Space Station.
Flickr/NASA Goddard
You can learn a lot about volcanoes by studying explosions. The more we can learn about their explosive behaviour, the more chance we have of saving lives when they suddenly erupt. There are many volcanoes…
Remains of a fertiliser plant and other buildings and vehicles after the plant exploded in West, Texas, USA, 17 April 2013.
EPA
At least 14 people – including a number of emergency services crew – died in an massive explosion on Wednesday night at a fertiliser plant in the small town of West near Waco, Texas. So what made the blaze…
Head of Data & Analytics and Senior Researcher for the Small Arms Survey, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)