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Ice Blasting
Ice blasting is the use of explosives to break up ice in rivers, aiding navigation and preventing flooding. This is done during the spring when snow is melting and river ice is breaking up. There is always a chance that the ice flows could collide creating an ice jam and blocking the river. The river, filled with melt water, will quickly flood and often cause damage to nearby settlements. Thus in most northern areas governments quickly act to break up the ice jams before they can do much damage. This is most easily done with explosives. These explosives may be planted from the shore, or in some cases by helicopter. Explosives can also be remotely delivered by artillery or dropped by bombers. In the large rivers of the Siberia the Russian airforce is sometimes called in to bomb ice jams. Some districts, where flooding is especially common, do preemptive ice blasting. The city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, for instance, blasts the Rideau River each spring to break up the ice. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Explosives
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An explosive charge is a measured quantity of explosive material, which may either be composed solely of one ingredient or be a mixture containing at least two substances. The potential energy stored in an explosive material may, for example, be: * chemical energy, such as nitroglycerin or Dust explosion, grain dust * pressure, pressurized gas compressor, gas, such as a gas cylinder, aerosol can, or boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion * nuclear weapon, nuclear energy, such as in the fissile isotopes uranium-235 and plutonium-239 Explosive materials may be categorized by the speed at which they expand. Materials that detonate (the front of the chemical reaction moves faster through the material than the speed of sound) are said to be "high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ice Jam
Ice jams occur when the ice that is drifting down-current in a river comes to a stop, for instance, at a river bend, when it contacts the river bed in a shallow area, or against bridge piers. Doing so increases the resistance to flow, thereby inducing an increase in water level upstream of the jam (referred to as ''backwater''). Ice jams are thus a main cause for flooding during the winter. In addition, when the jam is released, depending on the conditions under which this happens, the amount of water that was retained behind the jam can also lead to flooding ''downstream'' of where the jam occurred. Ice jam floods are generally less predictable and can also be faster than open-water floods. Snow or ice weather phenomena Mechanisms Ice jams on rivers usually occur in the springtime as the river ice begins to ''break up'', but may also occur in early winter during ''freeze-up''. The break-up process is described in three phases: pre-break-up, break-up and final drive. ''Pre-bre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flood
A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civil engineering and public health. Environmental issues, Human changes to the environment often increase the intensity and frequency of flooding. Examples for human changes are land use changes such as deforestation and Wetland conservation, removal of wetlands, changes in waterway course or flood controls such as with levees. Global environmental issues also influence causes of floods, namely climate change which causes an Effects of climate change on the water cycle, intensification of the water cycle and sea level rise. For example, climate change makes Extreme weather, extreme weather events more frequent and stronger. This leads to more intense floods and increased flood risk. Natural types of floods include riv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states since the lengthy conquest of Siberia, which began with the fall of the Khanate of Sibir in 1582 and concluded with the annexation of Chukotka in 1778. Siberia is vast and sparsely populated, covering an area of over , but home to roughly a quarter of Russia's population. Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Omsk are the largest cities in the area. Because Siberia is a geographic and historic concept and not a political entity, there is no single precise definition of its territorial borders. Traditionally, Siberia spans the entire expanse of land from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, with the Ural River usually forming the southernmost portion of its western boundary, and includes most of the drainage basin of the Arctic Ocean. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area (CMA) and the National Capital Region (Canada), National Capital Region (NCR). Ottawa had a city population of 1,017,449 and a metropolitan population of 1,488,307, making it the list of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, fourth-largest city and list of census metropolitan areas and agglomerations in Canada, fourth-largest metropolitan area in Canada. Ottawa is the political centre of Canada and the headquarters of the federal government. The city houses numerous List of diplomatic missions in Ottawa, foreign embassies, key buildings, organizations, and institutions of Government of Canada, Canada's government; these include the Parliament of Canada, the Supreme Court of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rideau River
The Rideau River (, ) is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The river flows north from Upper Rideau Lake and empties into the Ottawa River at the Rideau Falls in Ottawa, Ontario. Its length is . As explained in a writing by Samuel de Champlain in 1613, the river was given the name "Rideau" ( for, fr, , curtain) because of the appearance of the Rideau Falls. The Ojibwe language, Anishinàbemowin name for the river is . The Rideau Canal, which allows travel from Ottawa to the city of Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario, was formed by joining the Rideau River with the Cataraqui River. The river diverges from the Canal at Hog's Back Falls in Ottawa. In early spring, to reduce flooding on the lower section of the river, workers from the city of Ottawa use ice blasting to clear the ice which covers the river from Billings Bridge to Rideau Falls by cutting "keys" through the ice and using explosives to break off large sheets of ice. This practice has been going on for more than 100 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unexploded Ordnance
Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not explosion, explode when they were deployed and remain at risk for Detonation#Applications, detonation, sometimes many decades after they were used or discarded. When unwanted munitions are found, they are sometimes destroyed in Controlled explosion, controlled explosions, but accidental detonation of even very old explosives might also occur, sometimes with fatal consequences. For example, UXO from World War I continues to be a hazard, with poisonous gas filled munitions still a problem. UXO does not always originate from conflict; areas such as military training bases can also hold significant numbers, even after the area has been abandoned. Seventy-eight countries are contaminated by land mines, which kill or maim 15,000–20,000 people ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
