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STS037-152-184 Oil Well Fires, Kuwait April 1991
The Kuwait oil fields of Al Sabiriyah and Al Rawdatayn in the north (above center) and the Al Burqan in the south (right of center) can be seen burning and producing heavy black smoke plumes in this northeast-looking view. The image was obtained about four weeks after the end of the Gulf War. The Iraqi Government carried out their threat of a"scorched-earth"policy by systematically destroying nearly 80 percent of Kuwait's oil wells. The thick black smoke, traveling in a southwest direction near the surface, rose in altitude and was picked by the east-flowing sub-tropical jet stream between 16 000 feet (4 880 meters) to 25 000 feet (7 625 meters) and blown to the east and northeast out over the Persian Gulf (right). At the time of this image, work was just beginning to distinguish over 750 burning oil well fires. Thick marshes are still visible in the Tigris/Euphrates region.
Smoke from the burning oil fields to the north and south of Kuwait City, seen on the south shore of Kuwayt Bay almost totally obscures the view of the tiny, but oil rich, nation of Kuwait (29.5N, 47.5E). During the brief war between Iraq and the Allied forces, many of the oil wells in Kuwait were destroyed and set afire. For several months, those fires burned out of control, spewing wind borne smoke and ash for hundreds of miles. | |
