Fathoming chemical weapons in the Gotland Deep

Bibliographic Data

ID2406341
AuthorsAleksija Neimanis (0000-0001-7747-2290, National Veterinary Institute, Sweden), Cecilia Åsberg (0000-0001-7794-3806, Linköping University)
Year2017
Volume24
Issue4
Pages631-638
Publication date2017-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCultural Geographies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1474-4740 • E-ISSN: 1477-0881
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1474474017719069
OpenAlexW2736418417
LanguageEN
Citations received9

At the end of World War II, tens of thousands of tons of chemical warfare agents - mostly mustard gas - were dumped in the Gotland Deep - a deep basin in the middle of the otherwise shallow Baltic Sea. Decades later, these weapons are being reactivated - both literally (perhaps on the faces of dead seals, and in fishermen's nets) and also in our imaginations. In this story that recounts the beginning of our research into this situation, militarization meets with environmental concern: the past floats into the present, where humans and non-humans are equally implicated, where the sea itself conditions the kinds of questions we can ask, and answers we might get, and where terms like 'threat' and 'risk' remain undecided. After spending time on Gotland Island - the closest terrestrial site to these weapons dumps - we ask what kinds of research methods might be adequate to these tangled, underwater tales that we find so difficult to fathom

Archaeology · Baltic sea · Chemical warfare · Environmental ethics · Geography · Middle East · Militarization · Political science · Politics · Global Energy and Sustainability Research · History · Law · Oil Spill Detection and Mitigation · Geology · Oceanography

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