KIEL: Below the waves off Germany’s northern tourist beaches, a toxic time bomb lurks on the Baltic Sea floor — enormous quantities of World War II munitions that are slowly rusting away.
Scientists warn that as salt water corrodes the metal casings on rockets, artillery shells and bombs, they will release contaminants such as the explosive TNT into the marine environment.
To better map the dangers, a research vessel set sail this month from the port city of Kiel, whose bay is among the most polluted with unexploded ordnance.
A dozen scientists from Germany, Poland and Lithuania, backed by an 11-strong crew, are to spend three weeks on the Alkor, operated by the Kiel-based GEOMAR oceanographic research center.
The voyage will take them past a sunken torpedo boat, a destroyer, a minesweeper and a submarine, all identified from naval logbooks and other records in the German military archives.
