THE ANGELS— Underwater landfills along the coast of Los Angeles contain munitions from the era of the Second World Warincluding anti-submarine weapons and smoke devices, marine researchers announced Friday.
And study of known marine dumps conducted in April was able to identify the munitions using high-definition video at a limited portion of those sites, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, which led the effort, explained in an email.
He analysiswhich used unmanned deep-sea vehicles equipped with sonar and video cameras, was a high-tech survey of a region known to have been a dumping ground for industrial and chemical waste between the 1930s and 1970s.
A 2021 study, using sonar, had discovered more than 25,000 “barrel-shaped objects” on the ocean floor that could contain DDT and other toxic chemicals. High levels of the substance had previously been found in sediments and in marine mammals , and DDT has been linked to cancer in sea lions.
However, later investigations, such as that of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, suggested that much of the contamination could come from acidic waste containing DDT that was stored in tanks on the surface and was dumped into the sea in large quantities. instead of in barrels.
The April study included about 300 hours of high-definition video recorded in part of that area, which allowed researchers to identify some of the mysterious boxes and barrels thousands of meters (feet) deep in lines between the mainland and the island. of Santa Catalina, Scripps noted.
The sonar scanned a much larger area of the landfills, but was not accurate enough to distinguish the nature of the thousands of objects previously detected because the munitions and barrels are similar in size, meaning the video was the only way to positively identify them, he added.
Investigators concluded that most of the objects identified were “multiple types of discarded military munitions and pyrotechnics,” according to a previous statement from the institute. They included anti-submarine depth charges and smoke devices used as cover for warships.
The US Navy indicated that the munitions were possibly dropped during the World War II era when ships were returning to port as it was considered a safe and government-approved method at the time.
Source: AP
