70 Percent Of Corals Have Returned At Bikini Atoll
(Sydney Morning Herald)
Corals and marine life are flourishing on Bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands more than 50 years after it was the site of U.S. atomic bomb testing, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Scientists have found that about 70 percent of the corals that were destroyed during the tests have returned.
"The ones which came back are the fast-growing branching species. I expected a moonscape in the huge underwater crater left by the hydrogen bomb but I found the coral doing incredibly well," said scientist Zoe Richards, a PhD student at the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University. She was part of a scientific team invited by the U.S. to examine marine life at the atoll.
The U.S. conducted atomic bomb tests at Bikini between 1946 and 1958. The atoll's population was relocated to another island in the Marshall Islands. At attempt to resettle the atoll ended in tragedy in 1978 when it was discovered that residents were ingesting radioactivity from foods grown on Bikini.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/bikini-atoll-explodes-into-life/2008/05/10/1210131327683.html
