The New Carissa was a wood-chip freighter that ran aground on the Oregon coast during a storm in February 1999. Initial efforts to refloat and tow the ship back out to sea failed. As cracks developed in the hull, fuel oil began leaking out, and to avert an environmental disaster, officials decided to try burning [...]

And now for the very best kind of “exploding” whale… From BBC News: After 15 months of pregnancy, Qila the Vancouver Aquarium’s 12-year-old beluga whale has given birth to her first calf. The birth was captured live by television cameras. Qila was the first beluga whale to be conceived and born in a Canadian aquarium. [...]

A: When you use explosives to get rid of a dead one! Last week’s story of how the U.S. military shot down a satellite carrying toxic rocket fuel brought at least a couple comparisons to Oregon’s Exploding Whale. The military had lost control of the crippled satellite in late 2006 shortly after it was launched. [...]

In this AP photo, the giant, swollen tongue of a dead humpback whale appears close to exploding. Alas, it did not. The ballooning organ did, however, contribute to the whale’s death. While some officials initially said the swollen tongue indicated an infection, experts now believe that a large volume of air may have been forced [...]

Animation by KATU Another chapter in Oregon’s illustrious history of blowing stuff up was written at 7am on May 21, 2006 — a Sunday morning. 2,800 pounds of explosives were packed into about 3,000 separate holes drilled into the lower half of the cooling tower at the Trojan Nuclear Plant. (Yes, the plant was defunct [...]