20 Years After Chernobyl
Yesterday was the 20 year anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and Google has marked the occasion by providing high-resolution imagery of the whole area. In our thumbnail you can see the concrete sarcophagus which was built to attempt to contain the worst of the radiation within the destroyed reactor room.
We previously posted Chernobyl in June last year, but this new image update really gives you an idea of just how desolate this area has become.
Or has it? According to this article at the bbc the area surrounding Chernobyl has become an unexpected haven for all manner of wildlife, with hardly a Blinky in sight! In fact, even the sarcophagus itself has become a nesting ground for birds. Just to the north west is the deserted town of Prypyat where you can see the woods are slowly taking over from the abandoned tower blocks.
See Wikipedia for the full history of the Chernobyl Disaster.
Thanks to Juras Michiod, biseptol, Randall Berg, Eddie, Joshua Szentpaly, Yuri, Marco Olivo, Anton Matt Clark and Andrew Barrett.
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This doesn’t really fit in here, but on Gostomel Airport (about 90 km / 55 miles south) you can find the Antonov An-225, the world’s largest aircraft. Apparently it is the only one of its type in the whole world.
Anyone have any idea what this structure is? Its pretty big at about 800 meters long
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The site linked below has some amazing ground level pictures of Chernobyl and the surrounding area taken in the past few years.
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html
I don’t agree with the site’s politics (I am pro-nuke), but there are some amazing pictures (and stories) on it. Truly amazing what the Soviet government did in the immediate aftermath of this disaster… covering-up, exposing soldiers and others to massive radiation, etc. They were completely unprepared for this disaster…
That Tom, seems to be a row of electricity pylons.
I know its stating the bleeding obvious but there really is little sign of human activity - although i did find a solitary bus pootling along
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Just to the north of there check out the abandoned ships
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Typical! None for ages then two come at once!
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
I’m guessing the buses are shuttling decontamination workers back and forth to the plant. I believe they can only work for 20 minute periods at any one time.
I was checking out kiddofspeed’s site last week and her photo essay just knocked the wind out of me. There’s one photo of a ferris wheel toward the end of the series. I wondered if I could find it on GE. Sure enough. It’s about 2 mi. NW of the sarcophagus. Amazing.
Thanks Doug for that link, i had read it before but it hit me harder this time…somehow.
ethan I can’t find that ferris wheel, can someone post a link? Ta!
The ferris wheel is here:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
What is up with the ground being so white?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
oops, I posted a wrong link
correct link
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Is it snow?
I found a great ground level shot of the ferris wheel, along with lots of other great info, at chernobyl.info, link below. You should really take a look; it’s about as unsettling of a photo as you’ll ever see.
http://www.chernobyl.info/index.php?userhash=13355375&navID=4&lID=2
if anyone’s interested in seeing the plane al cohole mentioned it is here,
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
it is a truely amazing plane. I once was lucky enough to hear it fly over my head and i thought there was an explosion somewhere.
Re. big plane.
BLOOMIN HECK!
Tom: that structure is apparently a super-secret, officially abandoned military installation, often dubbed, as Chernobyl-2. It has no relation with the power plant. Some info here.
Some pictures of Chernobyl-2 here (Text in Russian)…
http://www.pripyat.com/ru/internet_photo/chernobyl_2/
Doug
Wow thanks Thomasd and Doug, i thought it was a bit too strange looking to be anything conventional.
Thank you, randall, for posting the link… Got to learn how to post links here some time…
Is it just me, or do the planes at that airfield look like they have been blanked out, or censored?
Luke, I think that area is just covered with images that are overexposed?
In water channels about a reactor catfishes in the size 3 meters are found. It you throw a long loaf of bread and they swallow it entirely. Horror…
P.S My English is vert bad, sorry…
I was browsing around the town Pripyat, and noticed some strange effects. Reflection or what?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The white or light structure of he surface is ether sand or calcit. This is result of massive decontamination efforts. Now levels are way down from they were and people are working more than 20 minutes on the plant, except certain areas under sarcofagus which is covering reactor No 4.
Wow… nature does take back what humans have cleared in a hurry.
check out the football field.
Google Maps Link
The Chernobyl-2 site is infact an over-the-horizon radar system known to NATO as Steel Yard.
The use of the shortwave spectrum, which was sensitive to ionospheric refraction, allowed the Soviets to detect alterations in ionosphere propagation caused by the depletion of ions by missile exhaust plumes.
Transmission power on some woodpecker transmitters was estimated to be as high as 10 megawatts. As well as disrupting shortwave amateur radio and broadcasting it could sometimes be heard over telephone circuits due to the strength of the signals.
Those planes at Gostomel Airport are definitely blanked out but I have no idea why. (if you save the jpg file and open it in any paint program, you can see that all the pixels of the blanked areas are (after accounting for JPG compression) the same color, and obscure details and shadows that would exist even if there were overexposure or glare, indicating someone has deliberately done this, though I do not know why they would).
I’d love to understand why someone would obliterate knowledge and information in this way. It feels like vandalism (though since the imagery is their own property, technically that’s not true).
Why are the planes hidden?
Well actually i think the planes are censored for security purposes as you can imagine Ukraine and Russia DO have enemys and those enemys want to screw there enemies up, so what do they do? Try and stop the repairs being done on Chernobly, thus the sarcophogus will crumble and release massive radiation that is being blocked in for 20 years.
The ferris wheel mentioned earlier is actually the last stand off you have in the game ‘call of duty 4 modern warfare’ i was surprised to see it cos they often just make the levels up on those games but the layout of chernobyl seems to be pretty accurate.
@29 Its not Chernobyl in COD, its Pripyat [=
I want to visit these places someday
there is a vehicle graveyard with some old military vehicles in it but i can’t find it. some of these vehicles are helicopters, which have no colour. apparently the colour was taken by some uv exposure, but i don’t remember….
could someone post a link?