The picture above depicts the Chernobyl Accident from a picture taken from space.
The Levels of Ecology and How the Chernobyl Disaster Affected Them
Ecosystem
The immediate ecosystem present around the area of the explosion was heavily affected. Over 160,000 people had to be evacuated from a 36 mile diameter “dead zone”. Ukraine alone estimates that 8,000 people initially died from exposure to the dangerous radiation levels. Government studies also estimate that over 125,000 people suffered heavy exposure to radiation and as a result miscarriages and birth defects in Ukraine alone rose a devastating 50% in the years following the explosion. Children were born not only with deformities but with a high risk of cancer such as thyroid, leukemia and breast cancer developing later in life. The most disconcerting of the deformities was an effect that latter came to be known as Chernobyl Heart. Heart deformities in babies born in Ukraine after the disaster quadrupled due to the buildup of caesium, a radioactive isotope, in the cardiac tissue of the heart
Scientists have done extensive studies not only on the people who lived in dangerous radioactive areas that had to be evacuated but on the surrounding forests and farmlands. The scientific community was greatly concerned about how the radioisotopes would affect the health of the farm animals in farms near the epicenter of the radiation explosion. Over time their fears where confirmed when an alarming spike of deformed birth’s and tuberculosis in cattle presented in their research. Other signs like how the eggs of the native Barn Swallows of the area became much thinner and much more likely to break. BiomeIn certain areas with high concentration of radiation people had to be evacuated in Belarus and Russia with a combined total of roughly 250,000 people in the two countries being forcibly moved from their homes. However, for some the mandated evacuation didn't come soon enough for some. Wide spread reports of prolonged exposure poured in from surrounding European countries, the exact number of people affected was not conclusive though some studies suggest that over a million people were affected directly.
BiosphereThe area affected was not limited to just Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. The effects of the radioactive isotopes even reached farther than the continent itself with the aid of several abiotic factors, elevated levels of radiation could be found throughout the entire Eurasian land mass and even in certain parts of America and Canada. While it is not known for sure if Chernobyl radiation was the cause of a slightly elevated increase of cancer diagnosis in America and in parts of Asian some studies suggest it is.
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An effect of prolonged radiation exposure.
A deformed calf fetus born on a farm close to Chernobyl.
A deformed frog found by scientists years after the explosion in Chernobyl.
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