Ocean Color Image Gallery

Bikini Atoll Under Threat

The Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands was used as a testing ground for 24 nuclear bombs between 1946 and 1958. Craters from the violent explosions are still evident, notably in the Northeastern part of the atoll where the Castle Bravo (equivalent to 15 Mt of TNT) and Romeo (11 Mt) tests were conducted. The local population of the islands was displaced before the tests and has never been able to come back because of radiation remaining in water and food sources. Surrounding populations were also affected by radiation.

In the waters surrounding the atoll, twenty-eight coral species have disappeared since the tests, but 70% of the coral was deemed resilient to the events decades later in 2002. The absence of human presence after the nuclear tests has been hypothesized as a beneficial factor to the biodiversity of the region. Sadly, coral in the atoll and all over the world faces an even greater threat today: a global increase in ocean temperature due to human-induced climate change. An increase of 2°C In global temperatures would be likely to cause a loss of 99% of the crucial ecosystems that are coral reefs globally, a 1.5°C increase would limit the loss to 70-90% of global reefs. Unless there is a drastic change in greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, this is likely to happen within the next fifty years.

This image was captured by Landsat 9 on April 2, 2023.