Contaminated Rio Doce Water Flows into the Atlantic

From Landsat:

Contaminated Rio Doce Water Flows into the Atlantic

On November 5, 2015, two tailing pond dams failed at an iron mine in southeastern Brazil, sending a deluge of contaminated mud and flood water through the village of Bento Rodrigues and into the Rio Doce (Sweet River). Seventeen days later, the flood water and mud reached the Atlantic Ocean. Contaminated water continued to flow into the ocean on November 30, 2015, when the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this natural-color image. According to news reports, the contaminated water contains high levels of mercury, arsenic, chromium, and manganese.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Adam Voiland.

Read More at:

http://landsat.visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=87083

and/or

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=87083&src=ve

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