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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

The ticking time bomb anchored off war-torn Yemen

A derelict oil tanker in the waters of the Middle Eastern nation is at high risk of rupturing, which would imperil millions of people already in crisis.
Yemenis reach to grab food being handed out at a charitable centre

Food aid in Yemen, where millions live on the brink of starvation, could be severely curtailed if a rusting tanker anchored off the coast spills its cargo. Credit: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty

A few kilometres off the Yemeni coast lies an abandoned oil tanker that has long aroused fears of a catastrophe: it could crack or explode at any time, and would release more than four times the amount of oil leaked by the Exxon Valdez in 1989. Modelling work shows that such a spill would endanger the lives of millions1.

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Nature 598, 389 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02784-0

References

  1. Huynh, B. Q. et al. Nature Sustain. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00774-8 (2021).

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