Kuwait oil fires
| As Iraqi troops withdrew from Kuwait in February 1991, they set fire to more than 700 oil wells and dumped 1.4 billion barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf. This black smoke streaming from the Sabriyah and Ahmadi oil fields (north and south respectively) was carried for hundreds of kilometers. In this scene, low-level winds carry the plumes to the south. Observers on the ground related how the sky was blackened for weeks by smoke from the burning fires. Controlling the oil fires required specialists from around the world who extinguished the fires and capped all the wells within nine months. This image was taken on shuttle flight STS-37. |
Credit: Courtesy Kam Lulla, JSC. For more images of this type, see the "Human Imprints from Space" slide set (Gwynn, Wilkinson, and Lulla; Lunar and Planetary Institute #989)
For more info: http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/iams/images/earth/STS037/html/10019993.htm