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> The plume of chemical vapors covered a significant proportion this country's breadbasket. Does anybody have a scientific (not clickbait) citation for this?
by schiffern 4y ago
> The plume of chemical vapors covered a significant proportion this country's breadbasket.
Does anybody have a scientific (not clickbait) citation for this?
The quick HYSPLIT plume simulation I ran[0] showed the plume crossing over New England on its way to the Atlantic. There is agriculture there, but I would hardly describe it as the nation's bread basket.
Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of contamination of the food supply from pesticides and soil-accumulating heavy metals in fertilizers. Buying local and organic food isn't paranoid, but it would be a mistake to over-attribute these pollution sources to the East Palestine incident.
[0] https://www.ready.noaa.gov/hypub-bin/hyresults.pl?jobidno=28280 https://www.ready.noaa.gov/hypub-bin/hyresults.pl?jobidno=28...
- 0xDEF 4y ago>Does anybody have a scientific (not clickbait) citation for this? The lack of this in the coverage of the East Palestine train derailment is interesting. So many of the claims goes back to TikTok videos and reddit comments.
- cwkoss 4y agoHere's a hysplit for the date of the disaster https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/113wyj3/hysplit_air_dispersion_model_depicting_the/ https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/113wyj3/hy... Looks like the plume didn't blow west much, which probably mitigates agricultural impact significantly, good point!
- schiffern 4y agoIndeed, different assumptions yield different data. The simulation I ran assumed 1.1 million lb of material released during the controlled burn on Feb 6 (this caused the famous "mushroom cloud" photos), while the Reddit sim seems to assume a constant release rate (quantity unknown) starting at the time of the initial derailment and fire. The actual plume will be some combination.