Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Sites incidents in country formerly part of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact
Unplanned explosions at munitions sites
A map of unplanned explosions at munitions sites from 1979-2013. These stockpile explosions are often correlated with conflicts in the region, not as acts of war, but accidents due to storing weapons, often in preparation for some kind of military (or para-military) action. This is not a map of hazards, per se, but rather could be seen as a map of fear of the hazard of war. As the stockpiling of weapons is inherently dangerous, we can see in this map where that risk was worth the assumed protection of more weaponry, which ties into the Soviet era arms race as it relates to Civil Defense.
Small Arms Survey
2013
map
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Radiation Hotspots Resulting From the Chornobyl' Nuclear Power Plant Accident
Chernobyl disaster
Map of concentrations of cesium-137 in the areas surrounding Chernobyl. This information wasn't released until three years after the event, meaning that there were whole swaths of people in Russia un aware they were in danger at all, as well as people in Ukraine and Belarus who had been unknowingly living in areas with higher concentrations of cesium-137 than the 30km danger zone.
Handbook of International Economic Statistics 1996
1996
map
Mountainous Areas of the USSR Prone to Avalanche, Landslide, and Mudslide
Avalanche vulnerability
A map of landslide, avalanche, and mudslide vulnerable areas of the Soviet Union. Notice how much of the hazard zones are in sparsely populated areas in the Far East, but also in more thickly settled mountain regions of Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Kravatsova, 1971
Holly Strand, University of Colorado
1971
map
Areas in the Soviet Union at Risk from Seismic Activity
Earthquake vulnerability
Distribution of all seismic events in the Soviet Union from 1977 to 1986. Note the particular concentrations along the Kamchatka peninsula, the Tian Shen and Pamir mountain ranges in south Central Asia, and pockets in the Caspian region. Note that the date range for the map does not include the 1988 Spitak earthquake.
Groter, 1989
Holly Strand, University of Colorado
More landslide damage in Tajikistan
Landslide damage in Tajikistan
Climate Vulnerability Map
CO emissions in 2010
2010 wildfires in Russia
Data retrievals from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite. The gif depicts trace concentrations of carbon monoxide in the air at the time of the wildfires in Russia. The cloud of CO from the fires started over European Russia and stayed for a month, stretching over Russia into China.
http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/featured-items/airs-observes-russian_fires
2010
gif
map
Ufa burn victim
Ufa train disaster
Photo of one of the burn victims following the ufa train disaster. Burn medicine in Soviet Union at the time was discovered to be far behind Western standards, forcing the USSR to request medical aid from US, making it the second disaster in a row in which the USSR had to publicly accept international aid.
http://www.porjati.net/victims/9225-24-goda-zheleznodorozhnoy-katastrofe-pod-ufoy.html
jpeg
photograph
Gorbachev in Armenia
Gorbachev's visit to Armenia
Newspaper account of Gorbachev's visit to Armenia in the wake of the 1988 earthquake. The picture depicts his visit to Leninakan (now Gyumri), the largest city involved in the Spitak earthquake disaster.
1988
newspaper clipping