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Floating Debris in the Northern Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina

[Image: see text] Hurricane Katrina (category 5 with maximum wind of 280 km/h when the eye is in the central Gulf of Mexico) made landfall near New Orleans on August 29, 2005, causing millions of cubic meters of disaster debris, severe flooding, and US$125 billion in damage. Yet, despite numerous re...

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Autores principales: Hu, Chuanmin, Qi, Lin, Wang, Menghua, Park, Young-Je
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Chemical Society 2023
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10357560/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37347705
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c01689
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author Hu, Chuanmin
Qi, Lin
Wang, Menghua
Park, Young-Je
author_facet Hu, Chuanmin
Qi, Lin
Wang, Menghua
Park, Young-Je
author_sort Hu, Chuanmin
collection PubMed
description [Image: see text] Hurricane Katrina (category 5 with maximum wind of 280 km/h when the eye is in the central Gulf of Mexico) made landfall near New Orleans on August 29, 2005, causing millions of cubic meters of disaster debris, severe flooding, and US$125 billion in damage. Yet, despite numerous reports on its environmental and economic impacts, little is known about how much debris has entered the marine environment. Here, using satellite images (MODIS, MERIS, and Landsat), airborne photographs, and imaging spectroscopy, we show the distribution, possible types, and amount of Katrina-induced debris in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Satellite images collected between August 30 and September 19 show elongated image features around the Mississippi River Delta in a region bounded by 92.5°W–87.5°W and 27.8°N–30.25°N. Image spectroscopy and color appearance of these image features indicate that they are likely dominated by driftwood (including construction lumber) and dead plants (e.g., uprooted marsh) and possibly mixed with plastics and other materials. The image sequence shows that if aggregated together to completely cover the water surface, the maximal debris area reached 21.7 km(2) on August 31 to the east of the delta, which drifted to the west following the ocean currents. When measured by area in satellite images, this perhaps represents a historical record of all previously reported floating debris due to natural disasters such as hurricanes, floodings, and tsunamis.
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spelling pubmed-103575602023-07-21 Floating Debris in the Northern Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina Hu, Chuanmin Qi, Lin Wang, Menghua Park, Young-Je Environ Sci Technol [Image: see text] Hurricane Katrina (category 5 with maximum wind of 280 km/h when the eye is in the central Gulf of Mexico) made landfall near New Orleans on August 29, 2005, causing millions of cubic meters of disaster debris, severe flooding, and US$125 billion in damage. Yet, despite numerous reports on its environmental and economic impacts, little is known about how much debris has entered the marine environment. Here, using satellite images (MODIS, MERIS, and Landsat), airborne photographs, and imaging spectroscopy, we show the distribution, possible types, and amount of Katrina-induced debris in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Satellite images collected between August 30 and September 19 show elongated image features around the Mississippi River Delta in a region bounded by 92.5°W–87.5°W and 27.8°N–30.25°N. Image spectroscopy and color appearance of these image features indicate that they are likely dominated by driftwood (including construction lumber) and dead plants (e.g., uprooted marsh) and possibly mixed with plastics and other materials. The image sequence shows that if aggregated together to completely cover the water surface, the maximal debris area reached 21.7 km(2) on August 31 to the east of the delta, which drifted to the west following the ocean currents. When measured by area in satellite images, this perhaps represents a historical record of all previously reported floating debris due to natural disasters such as hurricanes, floodings, and tsunamis. American Chemical Society 2023-06-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10357560/ /pubmed/37347705 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c01689 Text en © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Permits non-commercial access and re-use, provided that author attribution and integrity are maintained; but does not permit creation of adaptations or other derivative works (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Hu, Chuanmin
Qi, Lin
Wang, Menghua
Park, Young-Je
Floating Debris in the Northern Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina
title Floating Debris in the Northern Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina
title_full Floating Debris in the Northern Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina
title_fullStr Floating Debris in the Northern Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina
title_full_unstemmed Floating Debris in the Northern Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina
title_short Floating Debris in the Northern Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Katrina
title_sort floating debris in the northern gulf of mexico after hurricane katrina
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10357560/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37347705
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c01689
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