500words

Aberfan, on the West slopes of the Taff valley about four miles from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, grew up as a colliery village supporting the Merthyr Valley coalmine, opened in 1869. By 1966 the population of the village had risen to 5,000. Originally spoil from the colliery was deposited on the valley bottom, but by the 1910s tipping started on the slopes above the village. By 1966 there were seven tips comprising 2 million cubic meters of waste. Tip 7 was the only one in use, it was about 110ft high and included “tailings”, fine coal ash which becomes similar to quicksand when wet. At 9.15 in the morning of 21st October 1966 water saturated material broke away from the base of tip7 above the village of Aberfn. The movement caused the material to liquify and it raced 700yds down the hill at 11-21mph in wave 20-30ft high engulfing 2 cottages and killing the occupants. It continued on down the hill bursting 2 watermains which added further water to the spoil. This avalanche hit...

This is a photograph of the mysterious Sentinelese people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Islands.  The Sentinelese people may be one of the most isolated populations in the world. The island, and this photograph, came to global attention in 2018 with the murder of John Allen Chau, an American missionary who wanted to convert the Sentinelese to Christianity.  He was killed after illegally travelling to the island.  He should have know better.  The Sentinelese have a long history of extreme aggression towards outsiders trying to make contact. Describing the Sentinelese, 13th century explorer Marco Polo wrote, "They are the most violent and cruel generation who seem to eat everybody they catch." Fast forward through years of Burmese slave trading and British occupation (which probably didn't lessen the Sentinelese dislike of outsiders) to 1867 when an Indian merchant ship, Nineveh, was wrecked during a storm. 106 crew members landed on the beach a...