Which Egyptian god has a cat head?

Cats in ancient Egypt were valued very highly and were seen to be very close to the gods. They believed the cats were an embodiment of the goddess Bastet. Harming a cat in ancient Egypt was an offense punishable by death. When a cat died the Egyptians would mummify and bury their cats as an offering to the gods.

Dried cat

It is the custom in some European cultures to place the dried or desiccated body of a cat inside the walls of a newly built home to ward off evil spirits or as a good luck charm. It was believed that the cats had a sixth sense and would have psychic abilities in the afterlife to find the spirits. Putting the cat in the wall was seen as a blood sacrifice to ward off the evil spirits. Although some accounts claim the cats were walled in alive, examination of recovered specimens indicates post-mortem concealment in most cases.

In the British Isles, as well as in northern Europe and North America, the dried or mummified bodies of cats are frequently found concealed within structures and are believed to have been placed there to bring good luck or to protect the building and its occupants from harm. In some cases, the animals are found deliberately posed as if in the midst of attack. In other cases, they are accompanied by dried rats, mice, or birds.

Cats in ancient Egypt were represented in social and religious practices of Ancient Egypt for more than 30 centuries. Several Ancient Egyptian deities were depicted and sculptured with cat-like heads such as Mafdet, Bastet and Sekhmet, representing justice, fertility and power.
The deity Mut was also depicted as a cat and in the company of a cat.

Cats in ancient Egypt

Cats were praised for killing venomous snakes and protecting the Pharaoh since at least the First Dynasty of Egypt. Skeletal remains of cats were found among funerary goods dating to the 12th Dynasty. The protective function of cats is indicated in the "Book of the Dead", where a cat represents Ra and the benefits of the sun for life on Earth. Cat-shaped decorations used during the New Kingdom of Egypt indicate that the cat cult became more popular in daily life. Cats were depicted in association with the name of Bastet.

In the late 1880s, more than 200,000 mummified animals, most of them cats, were found in the cemetery of Beni Hasan in central Egypt.
Among the mummified animals excavated in Gizeh, the African wildcat ("Felis lybica") is the most common cat followed by the jungle cat ("Felis chaus").
In view of the huge number of cat mummies found in Egypt, the cat cult was certainly important for the country's economy, as it required breeding of cats and a trading network for the supply of food, oils and resins for embalming them.

Mafdet was the first known cat-headed deity in ancient Egypt. During the First Dynasty 2920–2770 BC, she was regarded as protector of the Pharaoh's chambers against snakes, scorpions and evil. She was often also depicted with a head of a leopard ("Panthera pardus"). She was particularly prominent during the reign of Den.

The deity Bastet is known from at least the Second Dynasty 2890 BC onwards. At the time, she was depicted with a lion ("Panthera leo") head. Seals and stone vessels with her name were found in the tombs of the pharaohs Khafra and Nyuserre Ini, indicating that she was regarded as protector since the mid 30th century BC during the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties.
A wall painting in the Fifth Dynasty’s burial ground at Saqqara shows a small cat with a collar, suggesting that tamed African wildcats were kept in the pharaonic quarters by the 26th century BC.

Amulets with cat heads came into fashion in the 21st century BC during the 11th Dynasty.
A mural from this period in the tomb of Baqet III depicts a cat in a hunting scene confronting a rat-like rodent.

Flinders Petrie excavated 17 cat skeletons in a tomb at the necropolis Umm El Qa'ab dating to the 12th Dynasty 1991–1783 BC. Next to the skeletons stood small pots that are thought to have contained milk for the cats.
The first known indication for the mummification of a cat was found in an elaborately carved limestone sarcophagus dated to about 1350 BC. This cat is assumed to have been Prince Thutmose’s beloved pet.

From the 22nd Dynasty at around the mid 950s BC onwards, the deity Bastet and her temple in the city of Bubastis became popular. She is now shown only with a small cat head.
During the reign of Pharaoh Osorkon II in the 9th century BC, the temple of Bastet was enlarged by a festival hall.
Cat statues and statuettes from this period exist in diverse sizes and materials, including solid and hollow cast bronze, alabaster and faïence.

By the end of the 10th century BC, domestic cats became popular. When they died, they were embalmed, coffined and buried in cat cemeteries. The domestic cat ("Felis catus") was regarded as living incarnation of Bastet who protects the household against granivores, and the lion-headed deity Sekhmet was worshipped as protector of Egypt.
Mummifying animals grew in popularity during the Late Period of ancient Egypt from 664 BC onwards. Mummies were used for votive offerings to the associated deity, mostly during festivals or by pilgrims. Catacombs from the New Kingdom period in the Bubastis, Saqqara and Beni Hasan necropoli were reused as cemeteries for mummies offered to Bastet.
In the mid 5th century BC, Herodotus described the annual festival at the Bubastis temple as the largest in the country, attended by several hundred thousand pilgrims.

As described by Diodorus Siculus, killing a cat was regarded a serious crime. In the years between 60 and 56 BC, outraged people lynched a Roman for killing a cat, although pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes tried to intervene.

Cats and religion began to be disassociated after Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC. A series of decrees and edicts issued by Roman Emperors in the 4th and 5th centuries AD gradually curtailed the practise of paganism and pagan rituals in Egypt. Pagan temples were impounded and sacrifices prohibited by 380 AD. Three edicts issued between 391 and 392 prohibited pagan rituals and burial ceremonies at all cult sites. Death penalty for offenders was introduced in 395, and destruction of pagan temples decreed in 399. By 415, the Christian church received all property that was formerly dedicated to paganism. Pagans were exiled by 423, and crosses replaced pagan symbols following a decree from 435.

In 1830, Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg accounted of having observed three different small cat forms in Egypt: the jungle cat, the African wildcat, and a sacred cat that was intermediate in size between the jungle cat and the domestic cat. He called this cat "Felis bubastis".

Egypt has since experienced a decline in the respect once held for cats; they are still kept as pets and tolerated outside the home because they catch pests. However, the cat has not lost all religious significance among modern Egypt's largely Islamic population, since cats are also revered to some extent in Muslim tradition.

In 1890, William Martin Conway wrote about excavations in Speos Artemidos near Beni Hasan: "The plundering of the cemetery was a sight to see, but one had to stand well windward. The village children came from day to day and provided themselves with the most attractive mummies they could find. These they took down the river bank to sell for the smallest coin to passing travelers. The path became strewn with mummy cloth and bits of cats' skulls and bones and fur in horrid positions, and the wind blew the fragments about and carried the stink afar."
In 1890, a shipment of thousands of animal mummies reached Liverpool. Most of them were cat mummies. A large part was sold as fertiliser, a small part was purchased by the zoological museum of the city's university college.

In 1907, the British Museum received a collection of 192 mummified cats and 11 small carnivores excavated at Gizeh. The mummies probably date to between 600 and 200 BC. Two of these cat mummies were radiographed in 1980. The analysis revealed that they were deliberately strangulated before they reached the age of two years. They were probably used to supply the demand for mummified cats as votive offerings.

Remains of 23 cats were found in the early 1980s in a small mastaba tomb at the archaeological site Balat in Dakhla Oasis, dated to the Old Kingdom of Egypt about 25th century BC. The cats were probably mummified as tissue shreds were still stuck in their bones.

Excavations in the Bubasteum area at Saqqara in the early 1980s yielded 200 cat mummies in the tomb of the Vizier Aperel.
Another 184 cat mummies were found in a different part of this tomb in the 1990s, comprising 11 packets with a few cat bones and 84 packets containing mud, clay and pebbles. Radiographic examination showed that mostly young cats were mummified; most cats died of skull fractures and had dislocated spinal bones, indicating that they were beaten to death. In this site, the tomb of Tutankhamun's wet nurse Maia was discovered in 1996, which contained cat mummies next to human mummies. In 2001, the skeleton of a male lion was found in this tomb that also showed signs of mummification. It was about nine years old, probably lived in captivity for many years and showed signs of malnutrition. It had probably lived and died in the Ptolemaic period.
Mummified remains of 335 domestic and 29 jungle cats were excavated in the catacombs of Anubis at Saqqara during works started in 2009.

In the 2nd century, Polyaenus accounted of a stratagem allegedly deployed by the Persian king Cambyses II during the Battle of Pelusium (525 BC): Cambyses II ordered placing of cats and other animals venerated by Egyptians before the Persian front lines. Egyptians purportedly stopped their defending operations, and the Persians then conquered Pelusium.


Is metabolite a drug?

An active metabolite is an active form of a drug after it has been processed by the body.

Active metabolite

An active metabolite results when a drug is metabolized by the body into a modified form which continues to produce effects in the body. Usually these effects are similar to those of the parent drug but weaker, although they can still be significant (see e.g. 11-hydroxy-THC, morphine-6-glucuronide). Certain drugs such as codeine and tramadol have metabolites (morphine and "O"-desmethyltramadol respectively) that are stronger than the parent drug and in these cases the metabolite may be responsible for much of the therapeutic action of the parent drug. Sometimes, however, metabolites may produce toxic effects and patients must be monitored carefully to ensure they do not build up in the body. This is an issue with some well-known drugs such as pethidine (meperidine) and dextropropoxyphene.

Sometimes drugs are formulated in an inactive form that is designed to break down inside the body to form the active drug. These are called prodrugs. The reasons for this type of formulation may be because the drug is more stable during manufacture and storage as the prodrug form, or because the prodrug is better absorbed by the body or has superior pharmacokinetics (e.g., lisdexamphetamine).

Active metabolite

Active metabolite


How is oil shale made?

Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced, called shale oil (not to be confused with tight oil—crude oil occurring naturally in shales). Shale oil is a substitute for conventional crude oil; however, extracting shale oil from oil shale is more costly than the production of conventional crude oil both financially and in terms of its environmental impact. Deposits of oil shale occur around the world, including major deposits in the United States. A 2016 estimate of global deposits set the total world resources of oil shale equivalent of of oil in place.

Oil shale

Heating oil shale to a sufficiently high temperature causes the chemical process of pyrolysis to yield a vapor. Upon cooling the vapor, the liquid shale oil—an unconventional oil—is separated from combustible oil-shale gas (the term "shale gas" can also refer to gas occurring naturally in shales). Oil shale can also be burned directly in furnaces as a low-grade fuel for power generation and district heating or used as a raw material in chemical and construction-materials processing.

Oil shale gains attention as a potential abundant source of oil whenever the price of crude oil rises. At the same time, oil-shale mining and processing raise a number of environmental concerns, such as land use, waste disposal, water use, waste-water management, greenhouse-gas emissions and air pollution. Estonia and China have well-established oil shale industries, and Brazil, Germany, and Russia also utilize oil shale.

General composition of oil shales constitutes inorganic matrix, bitumens, and kerogen. Oil shales differ from oil-"bearing" shales, shale deposits that contain petroleum (tight oil) that is sometimes produced from drilled wells. Examples of oil-"bearing" shales are the Bakken Formation, Pierre Shale, Niobrara Formation, and Eagle Ford Formation.

Oil shale, an organic-rich sedimentary rock, belongs to the group of sapropel fuels. It does not have a definite geological definition nor a specific chemical formula, and its seams do not always have discrete boundaries. Oil shales vary considerably in their mineral content, chemical composition, age, type of kerogen, and depositional history and not all oil shales would necessarily be classified as shales in the strict sense. According to the petrologist Adrian C. Hutton of the University of Wollongong, oil shales are not "geological nor geochemically distinctive rock but rather 'economic' term." Their common defining feature is low solubility in low-boiling organic solvents and generation of liquid organic products on thermal decomposition.

Oil shale differs from bitumen-impregnated rocks (oil sands and petroleum reservoir rocks), humic coals and carbonaceous shale. While oil sands do originate from the biodegradation of oil, heat and pressure have not (yet) transformed the kerogen in oil shale into petroleum, that means that its maturation does not exceed early mesocatagenetic.

General composition of oil shales constitutes inorganic matrix, bitumens, and kerogen. While the bitumen portion of oil shales is soluble in carbon disulfide, kerogen portion is insoluble in carbon disulfide and may contain iron, vanadium, nickel, molybdenum, and uranium. Oil shale contains a lower percentage of organic matter than coal. In commercial grades of oil shale the ratio of organic matter to mineral matter lies approximately between 0.75:5 and 1.5:5. At the same time, the organic matter in oil shale has an atomic ratio of hydrogen to carbon (H/C) approximately 1.2 to 1.8 times lower than for crude oil and about 1.5 to 3 times higher than for coals. The organic components of oil shale derive from a variety of organisms, such as the remains of algae, spores, pollen, plant cuticles and corky fragments of herbaceous and woody plants, and cellular debris from other aquatic and land plants. Some deposits contain significant fossils; Germany's Messel Pit has the status of a Unesco World Heritage Site. The mineral matter in oil shale includes various fine-grained silicates and carbonates. Inorganic matrix can contain quartz, feldspars, clays (mainly illite and chlorite), carbonates (calcite and dolomites), pyrite and some other minerals.

Geologists can classify oil shales on the basis of their composition as carbonate-rich shales, siliceous shales, or cannel shales.

Another classification, known as the van Krevelen diagram, assigns kerogen types, depending on the hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen content of oil shales' original organic matter. The most commonly used classification of oil shales, developed between 1987 and 1991 by Adrian C. Hutton, adapts petrographic terms from coal terminology. This classification designates oil shales as terrestrial, lacustrine (lake-bottom-deposited), or marine (ocean bottom-deposited), based on the environment of the initial biomass deposit. Known oil shales are predominantly aquatic (marine, lacustrine) origin. Hutton's classification scheme has proven useful in estimating the yield and composition of the extracted oil.

As source rocks for most conventional oil reservoirs, oil shale deposits are found in all world oil provinces, although most of them are too deep to be exploited economically. As with all oil and gas resources, analysts distinguish between oil shale resources and oil shale reserves. "Resources" refers to all oil shale deposits, while "reserves", represents those deposits from which producers can extract oil shale economically using existing technology. Since extraction technologies develop continuously, planners can only estimate the amount of recoverable kerogen.
Although resources of oil shale occur in many countries, only 33 countries possess known deposits of possible economic value.
Well-explored deposits, potentially classifiable as reserves, include the Green River deposits in the western United States, the Tertiary deposits in Queensland, Australia, deposits in Sweden and Estonia, the El-Lajjun deposit in Jordan, and deposits in France, Germany, Brazil, China, southern Mongolia and Russia. These deposits have given rise to expectations of yielding at least 40 liters of shale oil per tonne of oil shale, using the Fischer Assay.

A 2016 estimate set the total world resources of oil shale equivalent to yield of of shale oil, with the largest resource deposits in the United States accounting more than 80% of the world total resource. For comparison, at the same time the world's proven oil reserves are estimated to be. The largest deposits in the world occur in the United States in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; about 70% of this resource lies on land owned or managed by the United States federal government.
Deposits in the United States constitute more than 80% of world resources; other significant resource holders being China, Russia, and Brazil.

Humans have used oil shale as a fuel since prehistoric times, since it generally burns without any processing.
Britons of the Iron Age also used to polish it and form it into ornaments. The first patent for extracting oil from oil shale was British Crown Patent 330 granted in 1694 to three persons named Martin Eele, Thomas Hancock and William Portlock who had "found a way to extract and make great quantities of pitch, tarr, and oyle out of a sort of stone."

Modern industrial mining of oil shale began in 1837 in Autun, France, followed by exploitation in Scotland, Germany, and several other countries.

Operations during the 19th century focused on the production of kerosene, lamp oil, and paraffin; these products helped supply the growing demand for lighting that arose during the Industrial Revolution. Fuel oil, lubricating oil and grease, and ammonium sulfate were also produced. The European oil-shale industry expanded immediately before World War I due to limited access to conventional petroleum resources and to the mass production of automobiles and trucks, which accompanied an increase in gasoline consumption.

Although the Estonian and Chinese oil-shale industries continued to grow after World War II, most other countries abandoned their projects due to high processing costs and the availability of cheaper petroleum.
Following the 1973 oil crisis, world production of oil shale reached a peak of 46 million tonnes in 1980 before falling to about 16 million tonnes in 2000, due to competition from cheap conventional petroleum in the 1980s.

On 2 May 1982, known in some circles as "Black Sunday", Exxon canceled its US$5 billion Colony Shale Oil Project near Parachute, Colorado because of low oil-prices and increased expenses, laying off more than 2,000 workers and leaving a trail of home-foreclosures and small-business bankruptcies. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 which among other things abolished the United States' Synthetic Liquid Fuels Program.

The global oil-shale industry began to revive at the beginning of the 21st century. In 2003, an oil-shale development program restarted in the United States. Authorities introduced a commercial leasing program permitting the extraction of oil shale and oil sands on federal lands in 2005, in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

, industry uses oil shale in Brazil, China, Estonia and to some extent in Germany, and Russia. Several additional countries started assessing their reserves or had built experimental production plants, while others had phased out their oil shale industry. Oil shale serves for oil production in Estonia, Brazil, and China; for power generation in Estonia, China, and Germany; for cement production in Estonia, Germany, and China; and for use in chemical industries in China, Estonia, and Russia.

, 80% of oil shale used globally is extracted in Estonia, mainly due to the Oil-shale-fired power plants. Oil-shale-fired power plants occur in Estonia, which has an installed capacity of 2,967 megawatts (MW), China (12 MW), and Germany (9.9 MW). Israel, Romania and Russia have in the past run power plants fired by oil shale, but have shut them down or switched to other fuel sources such as natural gas. Jordan and Egypt plan to construct power plants fired by oil shale, while Canada and Turkey plan to burn oil shale along with coal for power generation.
Oil shale serves as the main fuel for power generation only in Estonia, where 90.3% of country's electrical generation in 2016 was produced from oil shale.

According to the World Energy Council, in 2008 the total production of shale oil from oil shale was 930,000 tonnes, equal to, of which China produced 375,000 tonnes, Estonia 355,000 tonnes, and Brazil 200,000 tonnes. In comparison, production of the conventional oil and natural gas liquids in 2008 amounted 3.95 billion tonnes or.

Most exploitation of oil shale involves mining followed by shipping elsewhere, after which one can burn the shale directly to generate electricity, or undertake further processing. The most common methods of surface mining involve open pit mining and strip mining. These procedures remove most of the overlying material to expose the deposits of oil shale, and become practical when the deposits occur near the surface. Underground mining of oil shale, which removes less of the overlying material, employs the room-and-pillar method.

The extraction of the useful components of oil shale usually takes place above ground ("ex-situ" processing), although several newer technologies perform this underground (on-site or "in-situ" processing).
In either case, the chemical process of pyrolysis converts the kerogen in the oil shale to shale oil (synthetic crude oil) and oil shale gas. Most conversion technologies involve heating shale in the absence of oxygen to a temperature at which kerogen decomposes (pyrolyses) into gas, condensable oil, and a solid residue. This usually takes place between and. The process of decomposition begins at relatively low temperatures (), but proceeds more rapidly and more completely at higher temperatures.

"In-situ" processing involves heating the oil shale underground. Such technologies can potentially extract more oil from a given area of land than "ex-situ" processes, since they can access the material at greater depths than surface mines can. Several companies have patented methods for "in-situ" retorting. However, most of these methods remain in the experimental phase. One can distinguish "true in-situ" processes (TIS) and "modified in-situ" processes (MIS). "True in-situ" processes do not involve mining the oil shale. "Modified in-situ" processes involve removing part of the oil shale and bringing it to the surface for modified "in-situ" retorting in order to create permeability for gas flow in a rubble chimney. Explosives rubblize the oil-shale deposit.

Hundreds of patents for oil shale retorting technologies exist; however, only a few dozen have undergone testing. By 2006, only four technologies remained in commercial use: Kiviter, Galoter, Fushun, and Petrosix.

Industry can use oil shale as a fuel for thermal power-plants, burning it (like coal) to drive steam turbines; some of these plants employ the resulting heat for district heating of homes and businesses. In addition to its use as a fuel, oil shale may also serve in the production of specialty carbon fibers, adsorbent carbons, carbon black, phenols, resins, glues, tanning agents, mastic, road bitumen, cement, bricks, construction and decorative blocks, soil-additives, fertilizers, rock-wool insulation, glass, and pharmaceutical products. However, oil shale use for production of these items remains small or only in its experimental stages. Some oil shales yield sulfur, ammonia, alumina, soda ash, uranium, and nahcolite as shale-oil extraction byproducts. Between 1946 and 1952, a marine type of "Dictyonema" shale served for uranium production in Sillamäe, Estonia, and between 1950 and 1989 Sweden used alum shale for the same purposes. Oil shale gas has served as a substitute for natural gas, but, producing oil shale gas as a natural-gas substitute remained economically infeasible.

The shale oil derived from oil shale does not directly substitute for crude oil in all applications. It may contain higher concentrations of olefins, oxygen, and nitrogen than conventional crude oil. Some shale oils may have higher sulfur or arsenic content. By comparison with West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark standard for crude oil in the futures-contract market, the Green River shale oil sulfur content ranges from near 0% to 4.9% (in average 0.76%), where West Texas Intermediate's sulfur content has a maximum of 0.42%. The sulfur content in shale oil from Jordan's oil shales may rise even up to 9.5%. The arsenic content, for example, becomes an issue for Green River formation oil shale. The higher concentrations of these materials means that the oil must undergo considerable upgrading (hydrotreating) before serving as oil-refinery feedstock. Above-ground retorting processes tended to yield a lower API gravity shale oil than the "in situ" processes. Shale oil serves best for producing middle-distillates such as kerosene, jet fuel, and diesel fuel. Worldwide demand for these middle distillates, particularly for diesel fuels, increased rapidly in the 1990s and 2000s. However, appropriate refining processes equivalent to hydrocracking can transform shale oil into a lighter-range hydrocarbon (gasoline).

The amount of economically recoverable oil shale is unknown. The various attempts to develop oil shale deposits have succeeded only when the cost of shale-oil production in a given region comes in below the price of crude oil or its other substitutes. According to a survey conducted by the RAND Corporation, the cost of producing a barrel of oil at a surface retorting complex in the United States (comprising a mine, retorting plant, upgrading plant, supporting utilities, and spent shale reclamation), would range between US$70–95 ($440–600/m, adjusted to 2005 values). This estimate considers varying levels of kerogen quality and extraction efficiency. In order to run a profitable operation, the price of crude oil would need to remain above these levels. The analysis also discusses the expectation that processing costs would drop after the establishment of the complex. The hypothetical unit would see a cost reduction of 35–70% after producing its first. Assuming an increase in output of during each year after the start of commercial production, RAND predicts the costs would decline to $35–48 per barrel ($220–300/m) within 12 years. After achieving the milestone of, its costs would decline further to $30–40 per barrel ($190–250/m).
Some commentators compare the proposed American oil-shale industry to the Athabasca oil-sands industry (the latter enterprise generated over of oil per day in late 2007), stating that "the first-generation facility is the hardest, both technically and economically".

In 2005, Royal Dutch Shell announced that its "in-situ" process could become competitive for oil prices over $30 per barrel ($190/m). A 2004 report by the United States Department of Energy stated that both the Shell technology and technology used in the Stuart Oil Shale Project could be competitive at prices above $25 per barrel, and that the Viru Keemia Grupp expected full-scale production to be economical at prices above $18 per barrel ($130/m).

To increase efficiency when retorting oil shale, researchers have proposed and tested several co-pyrolysis processes.

A 1972 publication in the journal "Pétrole Informations" () compared shale-based oil production unfavorably with coal liquefaction. The article portrayed coal liquefaction as less expensive, generating more oil, and creating fewer environmental impacts than extraction from oil shale. It cited a conversion ratio of of oil per one ton of coal, as against of shale oil per one ton of oil shale.

A critical measure of the viability of oil shale as an energy source lies in the ratio of the energy produced by the shale to the energy used in its mining and processing, a ratio known as "Energy Returned on Energy Invested" (EROEI). A 1984 study estimated the EROEI of the various known oil-shale deposits as varying between 0.7–13.3
although known oil-shale extraction development projects assert an EROEI between 3 and 10. According to the World Energy Outlook 2010, the EROEI of "ex-situ" processing is typically 4 to 5 while of "in-situ" processing it may be even as low as 2. However, according to the IEA most of used energy can be provided by burning the spent shale or oil-shale gas.

The water needed in the oil shale retorting process offers an additional economic consideration: this may pose a problem in areas with water scarcity.

Mining oil shale involves a number of environmental impacts, more pronounced in surface mining than in underground mining. These include acid drainage induced by the sudden rapid exposure and subsequent oxidation of formerly buried materials, the introduction of metals including mercury into surface-water and groundwater, increased erosion, sulfur-gas emissions, and air pollution caused by the production of particulates during processing, transport, and support activities. In 2002, about 97% of air pollution, 86% of total waste and 23% of water pollution in Estonia came from the power industry, which uses oil shale as the main resource for its power production.

Oil-shale extraction can damage the biological and recreational value of land and the ecosystem in the mining area. Combustion and thermal processing generate waste material. In addition, the atmospheric emissions from oil shale processing and combustion include carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Environmentalists oppose production and usage of oil shale, as it creates even more greenhouse gases than conventional fossil fuels. Experimental "in situ" conversion processes and carbon capture and storage technologies may reduce some of these concerns in the future, but at the same time they may cause other problems, including groundwater pollution. Among the water contaminants commonly associated with oil shale processing are oxygen and nitrogen heterocyclic hydrocarbons. Commonly detected examples include quinoline derivatives, pyridine, and various alkyl homologues of pyridine (picoline, lutidine).

Water concerns are sensitive issues in arid regions, such as the western US and Israel's Negev Desert, where plans exist to expand oil-shale extraction despite a water shortage. Depending on technology, above-ground retorting uses between one and five barrels of water per barrel of produced shale-oil. A 2008 programmatic environmental impact statement issued by the US Bureau of Land Management stated that surface mining and retort operations produce of waste water per of processed oil shale. "In situ" processing, according to one estimate, uses about one-tenth as much water.

Environmental activists, including members of Greenpeace, have organized strong protests against the oil shale industry. In one result, Queensland Energy Resources put the proposed Stuart Oil Shale Project in Australia on hold in 2004.

Some comets contain "massive amounts of an organic material almost identical to high grade oil shale," the equivalent of cubic kilometers of such mixed with other material; for instance, corresponding hydrocarbons were detected in a probe fly-by through the tail of Comet Halley during 1986.

Oil shale

Geologists can classify oil shales on the basis of their composition as carbonate-rich shales, siliceous shales, or cannel shales.

Modern industrial mining of oil shale began in 1837 in Autun, France, followed by exploitation in Scotland, Germany, and several other countries.

Hundreds of patents for oil shale retorting technologies exist; however, only a few dozen have undergone testing. By 2006, only four technologies remained in commercial use: Kiviter, Galoter, Fushun, and Petrosix.

To increase efficiency when retorting oil shale, researchers have proposed and tested several co-pyrolysis processes.

The water needed in the oil shale retorting process offers an additional economic consideration: this may pose a problem in areas with water scarcity.


What was the worst hurricane in history?

The Great Galveston Hurricane, known regionally as the Great Storm of 1900, was the deadliest natural disaster in United States history, one of the deadliest hurricanes (or remnants) to affect Canada, and the fourth-deadliest Atlantic hurricane overall. The hurricane left between 6,000 and 12,000 fatalities in the United States; the number most cited in official reports is 8,000. Most of these deaths occurred in the vicinity of Galveston after storm surge inundated the entire island with of water. In addition to the number killed, every house in the city sustained damage, with at least 3,636 destroyed. Approximately 10,000 people in the city were left homeless, out of a total population of nearly 38,000. The disaster ended the Golden Era of Galveston, as the hurricane alarmed potential investors, who turned to Houston instead. The Gulf of Mexico shoreline of Galveston island was subsequently raised by and a seawall erected.

1900 Galveston hurricane

The first observed hurricane of the season, the tropical cyclone was first detected by a ship well east of the Windward Islands on August 27. Initially at tropical storm intensity, it slowly strengthened while moving steadily west-northwestward and entered the northeastern Caribbean Sea on August 30. The storm made landfall in the Dominican Republic as a weak tropical storm on September 2. It weakened slightly while crossing Hispaniola, before re-emerging into the Caribbean Sea later that day. On September 3, the cyclone struck modern day Santiago de Cuba Province and then slowly drifted along the southern coast of Cuba. Upon reaching the Gulf of Mexico on September 6, the storm strengthened into a hurricane. Significant intensification followed and the system peaked as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) on September 8. Early on the next day, it made landfall near present day Jamaica Beach, Texas. The cyclone weakened quickly after moving inland and fell to tropical storm intensity late on September 9. The storm turned east-northeastward and became extratropical over Iowa on September 11. The extratropical system strengthened while accelerating across the Midwestern United States, New England, and Eastern Canada before reaching the Gulf of Saint Lawrence on September 13. After striking Newfoundland later that day, the remnants entered the far North Atlantic Ocean and weakened, finally dissipating near Iceland on September 15.

The storm brought flooding and severe thunderstorms to portions of the Caribbean, especially Cuba and Jamaica. It is likely that much of South Florida experienced tropical storm force winds, though mostly minor damage occurred overall. Hurricane force winds and storm surge inundated portions of southern Louisiana, though no significant structural damage or fatalities were reported. The hurricane brought strong winds and storm surge to a large portion of east Texas, with Galveston suffering the brunt of the impact. Further north, the storm and its remnants continued to produce heavy rains and gusty winds, which downed telegraph wires, signs, and trees in several states. There were fifteen deaths in Ohio, two in Illinois, two in New York, and one in Missouri. Property damage from the storm throughout the United States was estimated at $30 million. The remnants also brought severe impact to Canada. In Ontario, damage reached about $1.35 million, with $1 million to crops. There were at least 52 deaths – and possibly as many as 232 deaths – in Canada, mostly due to sunken vessels near Newfoundland and the French territory of Saint-Pierre. Throughout its path, the hurricane caused more than $31.4 million in damage.

The storm's origins are unclear, because of the limited observational methods available to meteorologists at the time. Ship reports were the only reliable tool for observing hurricanes at sea, and because wireless telegraphy was in its infancy, these reports were not available until the ships put in at a harbor. The 1900 storm, like many powerful Atlantic hurricanes, is believed to have begun as a Cape Verde hurricane—a tropical wave moving off the western coast of Africa. The first formal sighting of the hurricane's precursor occurred on August 27, about east of the Windward Islands, when a ship recorded an area of "unsettled weather". The storm passed through the Leeward Islands on August 30, probably as a tropical depression as indicated by barometric pressure reports from Antigua.

Three days later, Antigua reported a severe thunderstorm passing over, followed by the hot, humid calmness that often occurs after the passage of a tropical cyclone. By September 1, U.S. Weather Bureau observers were reporting on a "storm of moderate intensity (not a hurricane)" southeast of Cuba. Continuing westward, the storm made landfall on southwest Cuba on September 3, dropping heavy rains. On September 5, it emerged into the Florida Straits as a tropical storm or a weak hurricane. Conditions in the Gulf of Mexico were favorable for further strengthening of the storm. The Gulf had seen little cloud cover for several weeks, and the seas were "as warm as bathwater", according to one report. The Weather Bureau ignored reports from Cuban meteorologists because they expected the storm to curve northeast along the coast of North America: "Assumption became fact as the official government reports stated, wrongly, that the storm was traveling northeast in the Atlantic." However, a region of high pressure had pushed the storm to the west into the Gulf of Mexico.

The storm was reported to be north of Key West on September 6, Late on September 6, the ship "Louisiana" encountered the hurricane after departing New Orleans. Captain Halsey estimated wind speeds of, which corresponds to Category 2 intensity on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. In the early morning hours of Friday, September 7, the Weather Bureau office in New Orleans, Louisiana, issued a report of heavy damage along the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts. Details of the storm were not widespread; damage to telegraph lines limited communication. The Weather Bureau's central office in Washington, D.C., ordered storm warnings raised from Pensacola, Florida, to Galveston. The hurricane continued to strengthen significantly while heading west-northwestward across the Gulf of Mexico, becoming a Category 3 hurricane at 06:00 UTC on September 7 and reaching Category 4 intensity about 12 hours later. Upon becoming a Category 4 hurricane, the cyclone reached its maximum sustained wind speed of 145 mph (230 km/h). By the afternoon of September 7, large swells from the southeast were observed on the Gulf, and clouds at all altitudes began moving in from the northeast. Both of these observations are consistent with a hurricane approaching from the east. The Galveston Weather Bureau office raised its double square flags; a hurricane warning was in effect.

On September 8, the hurricane weakened slightly and recurved to the northwest while approaching the coast of Texas. By 22:00 UTC, the Weather Bureau office in Galveston was observing sustained hurricane-force winds. The cyclone made landfall around 02:00 UTC on September 9 near modern-day Jamaica Beach with sustained winds of 140 mph (220 km/h). Upon making landfall, it was estimated that the hurricane had a atmospheric pressure of, the lowest pressure associated with the system. While crossing Galveston Island and West Bay, the eye passed just west of the city of Galveston. The hurricane quickly weakened after moving inland, weakening to a Category 2 around 06:00 UTC on September 9 and then to a Category 1 hurricane about 12 hours later. Later that day, it curved northward and weakened to a tropical storm at 18:00 UTC. About 24 hours later, the cyclone weakened to a tropical depression over Kansas on September 10. The storm lost tropical characteristics and transitioned into an extratropical cyclone over Iowa by 12:00 UTC on the following day. Moving rapidly east-northeastward, the extratropical system re-intensified, becoming the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane over Ontario on September 13. After crossing Newfoundland and entering the far northern Atlantic, the remnants of the hurricane weakened and were last noted near Iceland on September 15.

In 1900, the city of Galveston, Texas, was a booming town. According to the 1900 Census, the population of Galveston was 37,788, an increase from 29,084 people recorded in the 1890 Census. The city was fourth largest municipality in the state of Texas in 1900 and among the highest per capita income rates in the United States. Galveston had many ornate business buildings in a downtown section called The Strand, which was considered the "Wall Street of the Southwest." The city's position on the natural harbor of Galveston Bay along the Gulf of Mexico made it the center of trade in Texas, and one of the busiest ports in the nation. With this prosperity came a sense of complacency.

A quarter of a century earlier, the nearby town of Indianola on Matagorda Bay was undergoing its own boom and was second to Galveston among Texas port cities. Then in 1875, a powerful hurricane blew through, nearly destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, though a second hurricane in 1886 caused residents to simply give up and move elsewhere. Many Galveston residents took the destruction of Indianola as an object lesson on the threat posed by hurricanes. Galveston is built on a low, flat island, little more than a large sandbar along the Gulf Coast. These residents proposed a seawall be constructed to protect the city, but their concerns were dismissed by the majority of the population and the city's government.

Since its formal founding in 1839, the city of Galveston had weathered numerous storms, all of which the city survived with ease. Residents believed any future storms would be no worse than previous events. In order to provide an official meteorological statement on the threat of hurricanes, Galveston Weather Bureau section director Isaac Cline wrote an 1891 article in the "Galveston Daily News" in which he argued not only that a seawall was "not" needed to protect the city, but also that it would be impossible for a hurricane of significant strength to strike the island. The seawall was not built, and development activities on the island actively increased its vulnerability to storms. Sand dunes along the shore were cut down to fill low areas in the city, removing what little barrier there was to the Gulf of Mexico.

On September 4, the Galveston office of the National Weather Bureau (as it was then called) began receiving warnings from the Bureau's central office in Washington, D.C., that a tropical storm had moved northward over Cuba. At the time, they discouraged the use of terms such as "tornado" or "hurricane" to avoid panicking residents in the path of any storm event. The Weather Bureau forecasters had no way of knowing the storm's trajectory, as Weather Bureau director Willis Moore implemented a policy to block telegraph reports from Cuban meteorologists at the Belen Observatory in Havana – considered one of the most advanced meteorological institutions in the world at the time – due to tensions remaining in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War. Moore also changed protocol to force local Weather Bureau offices to seek authorization from the central office before issuing storm warnings.

Weather Bureau forecasters believed the storm would travel northeast and affect the mid-Atlantic coast. "To them, the storm appeared to have begun a long turn or'recurve' that would take it first into Florida, then drive it northeast toward an eventual exit into the Atlantic." Cuban forecasters adamantly disagreed, saying the hurricane would continue west. One Cuban forecaster predicted the hurricane would continue into central Texas near San Antonio. Early the next morning, the swells continued despite only partly cloudy skies. Largely because of the unremarkable weather, few residents heeded the warning. Few people evacuated across Galveston's bridges to the mainland, and the majority of the population was unconcerned by the rain clouds that began rolling in by midmorning.

Isaac Cline claimed that he took it upon himself to travel along the beach and other low-lying areas warning people personally of the storm's approach. These reports by Cline and his brother, Galveston meteorologist Joseph L. Cline, have been called into question in recent years, as no other survivors corroborated these accounts. In fact, Cline's role in the disaster is the subject of some controversy. Supporters point to Cline's issuing a hurricane warning without permission from the Bureau's central office; detractors (including author Erik Larson) point to Cline's earlier insistence that a seawall was unnecessary and his belief that an intense hurricane could not strike the island.

Heavy rainfall fell in Cuba in association with the storm, including up to 12.58 in (320 mm) in a 24‑hour period in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The city experienced its worst weather since 1877. The southern end of the city was submerged with about of water. Firefighters and police rescued and aided stranded residents. "St. George", a German steamer, ran aground at Daiquirí. In Jamaica, heavy rainfall from the storm caused all rivers to swell. Floodwaters severely damaged banana plantations and washed away miles of railroads. Damage estimates ranged in the thousands of British pounds.

The Great Galveston hurricane made landfall on September 9, 1900, near Galveston, Texas. It had estimated winds of at landfall, making the cyclone a Category 4 storm on the modern day Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale.
The hurricane caused great loss of life, with a death toll of between 6,000 and 12,000 people; the number most cited in official reports is 8,000, giving the storm the third-highest number of deaths or injuries of all Atlantic hurricanes, after the Great Hurricane of 1780 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is the deadliest natural disaster to strike the United States. This loss of life can be attributed to the fact that officials for the Weather Bureau in Galveston brushed off the reports because the city had "weathered them all" and they did not realize the threat. The second-deadliest storm to strike the United States, the San Ciriaco hurricane of 1899, caused around 3,400 deaths.

The hurricane occurred before the practice of assigning official code names to tropical storms was instituted, and thus it is commonly referred to under a variety of descriptive names. Typical names for the storm include the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the Great Galveston Hurricane, and, especially in older documents and publications, the Galveston Flood. It is often referred to by Galveston locals as the Great Storm or the 1900 Storm.

Portions of southern Florida experienced tropical storm force winds, with a sustained wind speed of in Jupiter and in Key West. The hurricane left "considerable damage" in the Palm Beach area. Many small boats were torn from their moorings and capsized. The bulkhead of the pier was washed away, while docks and a number of seawalls were damaged. High winds in North Florida downed telegraph lines between Jacksonville and Pensacola. In Mississippi, the city of Pass Christian recorded winds of. Tides produced by the storm inundated about of railroad tracks in Pascagoula (then known as Scranton), while a quarantine station on Ship Island was swept away.

In Louisiana, the storm produced gale force winds as far inland as DeRidder and as far east as New Orleans, with hurricane-force winds observed in Cameron Parish. Along the coast, storm surge inundated Johnson Bayou, while tides at some locations reached their highest level since the Indianola hurricane of 1875. Winds and storm surge caused severe damage to rice crops, with at least 25% destroyed. The community of Pointe à la Hache experienced at total loss of rice crops. Farther east, roads were flooded by storm surge in the communities of Gretna and Harvey near New Orleans, leaving the streets impassable via horses. Winds downed telegraph lines in the southeastern Louisiana in the vicinity of Port Eads. Two men went missing and were presumed to have drowned after sailing away from Fort St. Philip and not returning in a timely manner. However, they were both later found alive.

The first train to reach Galveston left Houston on the morning of September 8 at 9:45 a.m. It found the tracks washed out, and passengers were forced to transfer to a relief train on parallel tracks to complete their journey. Even then, debris on the track slowed the train's progress to a crawl. The 95 travelers on the train from Beaumont found themselves at the Bolivar Peninsula waiting for the ferry that would carry them, train and all, to the island. When it arrived, the high seas forced the ferry captain to give up on his attempt to dock. The train crew attempted to return the way they had come, but rising water blocked the train's path.

Ten refugees from the Beaumont train sought shelter at the Point Bolivar lighthouse with 200 residents of Port Bolivar who were already there. The 85 who stayed with the train died when the storm surge overran the tops of the cars.

At the time of the 1900 hurricane, the highest point in the city of Galveston was only above sea level. The hurricane brought with it a storm surge of over that washed over the entire island. Storm surge and tides began flooding the city by the early morning hours of September 8. Water rose steadily from 3:00 p.m. CST (2100 UTC) until approximately 7:30 p.m. (0130 UTC September 9), when eyewitness accounts indicated that water rose about in just four seconds. An additional of water had flowed into portions of the city by 8:30 p.m. (0230 UTC September 9). The cyclone dropped of precipitation in Galveston on September 8, setting a record for the most rainfall for any 24-hour period in the month of September in the city's history.

The highest measured wind speed was just after 6 p.m. on September 8 (0000 UTC September 9), but the Weather Bureau's anemometer was blown off the building shortly after that measurement was recorded. Contemporaneous estimates placed the maximum sustained wind speed. However, survivors reported observing bricks, slate, timbers, and other heavy objects becoming airborne, indicating that winds were likely stronger. Later estimates placed the hurricane at the higher Category 4 classification on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale. The lowest recorded barometric pressure was, considered at the time to be so low as to be obviously in error. Modern estimates later placed the storm's central pressure at, but this was subsequently adjusted to the storm's official lowest measured central pressure of.

Few streets in the city escaped wind damage and all streets suffered water damage, with much of the destruction caused by storm surge. All bridges connecting the island to the mainland were washed away, while approximately of railroad track was destroyed. Winds and storm surge also downed electrical, telegraph, and telephone wires. The surge swept buildings off their foundations and dismantled them. Many buildings and homes destroyed other structures after being pushed into them by the waves, which even demolished structures built to withstand hurricanes. Every home in Galveston suffered damage, with 3,636 homes destroyed. Approximately 10,000 people in the city were left homeless, out of a total population of nearly 38,000. The Tremont Hotel, where hundreds of people sought refuge during the storm, was severely damaged. All public buildings also suffered damage, including city hall – which was completely deroofed – a hospital, a city gas works, a city water works, and the custom house. The Grand Opera House also sustained extensive damage, but was quickly rebuilt.

Three schools and St. Mary's University were nearly destroyed. Many places of worship in the city also received severe damage or were completely demolished. Of the 39 churches in Galveston, 25 experienced complete destructed, while the others received some degree of damage. During the storm, the St. Mary's Orphans Asylum, owned by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, was occupied by 93 children and 10 sisters. As tides began approaching the property, the sisters moved the children into the girl's dorm, as it was newer and sturdier. Realizing they were under threat, the sisters had the children repeatedly sing Queen of the Waves to calm them. As the collapse of the building appeared imminent, the sisters used a clothes line to tie themselves to six to eight children. The building eventually collapsed. Only three of children and none of the sisters survived. The storm destroyed about 7,000 buildings of all uses in Galveston alone, which included businesses, churches, convents, hotels, and houses. The few buildings that survived, mostly solidly built mansions and houses along the Strand District, are today maintained as tourist attractions.

Early property damage estimates were placed at $25 million. However, itemized estimates from 1901 based on assessments conducted by the "Galveston News", the Galveston chamber of commerce, a relief committee, and multiple insurance companies indicated that the storm caused just over $17 million in damage throughout Galveston, including about $8.44 million to residential properties, $500,000 to churches, $656,000 to wharves and shipping properties, $580,000 to manufacturing plants, $397,000 to mercantile buildings, $1.4 million to store merchandise, $670,000 to railroads and telegraph and telephone services, $416,000 to products in shipment, $336,000 to municipality properties, $243,000 to county properties, and $3.16 million to United States government properties. The total also included $115,000 in damage to schools and approximately $100,000 in damage to roads.

The area of destruction – an area in which nothing remained standing after the storm – was approximately of land and was arc-shaped, with complete demolition of structures in the west, south, and eastern portions of the city, while the north-central section of the city suffered the least amount of damage. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, a long, wall of debris was situated in the middle of the island. As severe as the damage to the city's buildings was, the death toll was even greater. Because of the destruction of the bridges to the mainland and the telegraph lines, no word of the city's destruction was able to reach the mainland. At 11 a.m. (1700 UTC) on September 9, one of the few ships at the Galveston wharfs to survive the storm, the "Pherabe", arrived in Texas City on the western side of Galveston Bay. It carried six messengers from the city. When they reached the telegraph office in Houston at 3 a.m. on September 10, a short message was sent to Texas Governor Joseph D. Sayers and U.S. President William McKinley: "I have been deputized by the mayor and Citizen's Committee of Galveston to inform you that the city of Galveston is in ruins." The messengers reported an estimated five hundred dead; this was initially considered to be an exaggeration.

The citizens of Houston knew a powerful storm had blown through and had prepared to provide assistance. Workers set out by rail and ship for the island almost immediately. Rescuers arrived to find the city completely destroyed. It is believed 8,000 people—20% of the island's population—had lost their lives. Estimates range from 6,000 to 12,000. Most had drowned or been crushed as the waves pounded the debris that had been their homes hours earlier. A number of fatalities also occurred after strong winds turned debris into projectiles. Many survived the storm itself but died after several days being trapped under the wreckage of the city, with rescuers unable to reach them. The rescuers could hear the screams of the survivors as they walked on the debris trying to rescue those they could.

The dead bodies were so numerous that burying all of them was impossible. The dead were initially weighted down on barges and dumped at sea, but when the gulf currents washed many of the bodies back onto the beach, a new solution was needed. Funeral pyres were set up on the beaches, or wherever dead bodies were found, and burned day and night for several weeks after the storm. The authorities passed out free whiskey to sustain the distraught men conscripted for the gruesome work of collecting and burning the dead. More people were killed in this single storm than the total of those killed in at least the next two deadliest tropical cyclones that have struck the United States since. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

The storm maintained tropical characteristics and Saffir–Simpson tropical storm-force winds (39–50 mph) when it crossed the Upper Midwest, with more than of rain being reported over most of the southern third of Wisconsin. Wind created problems all over, including over Lake Michigan, and other areas in the path of the storm had similar problems. (Tropical storms reach Wisconsin and surrounding areas to the east, west, and south once every 50 years on average with others in the 19th century, 1961, and (subject to debate) Hurricane Ike in 2008; tropical depressions hit twice to three times every two years; and subtropical storms and depressions hit equally or more rarely than their tropical counterparts.)

The extratropical remnants of the cyclone re-intensified to the equivalency of a tropical storm and continued to strengthen, bring strong winds to the Midwestern United States. Strong winds in Missouri toppled a brick wall under construction in St. Joseph fell over, killing a man and severely injuring another. In Illinois, particularly hard hit was the city of Chicago, which experienced wind gusts up to. Thousands of dollars in damage occurred to roofs, trees, signs, and windows. Several people were injured and two deaths occurred in the city, one from a live wire and the other was a drowning after a boat capsized in Lake Michigan. Rough seas in Lake Erie resulted in several maritime incidents offshore Ohio. The steamer "John B. Lyon" capsized about north of Conneaut, drowning 14 out of 16 crew members. About farther north, the schooner "Dundee" sank, causing at least one death. The steamer "City of Erie", with about 300 passengers aboard, was hit by a tidal wave that swept over the bulwarks, but later reached safety in Canada with no loss of lives. In Toledo, strong winds disrupted telegraph services. Winds also blew water out of part of the Maumee River and Maumee Bay, causing a number of vessels to be buried in the mud or beached.

In Buffalo, winds peaked at as the storm passed over the area. Hundreds of electrical, telegraph, and telephone wires were downed. while numerous trees toppled and some branches downed onto roadways. An oil derrick blew away and landed on the roof of a house, crushing the roof and nearly killing the occupants. A newly-built iron works building was virtually destroyed, causing a loss of about $10,000. At the Pan-American Exposition, the storm damaged several structures, including part of the government building, while two towers were destroyed. Losses at the exposition alone were conservatively estimated at $75,000. One death occurred in Buffalo after a woman inadvertently touched a downed electrical wire obscured by debris. Several nearby resorts received extensive damage. At Woodlawn Beach, several dozens of small boats and a pier were destroyed. Nearly all vessels owned by the Buffalo Canoe Club suffered severe damage or destruction at Crystal Beach. A toboggan slide and a restaurant were also destroyed. Losses Crystal Beach reached about $5,000. Heavy crop losses occurred over western New York, with fallen apples and peaches completely covering the ground at thousands of acres of orchards. Losses reportedly ranged in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The rapidly moving storm was still exhibiting winds of by the time it reached New York City on September 12. "The New York Times" reported that pedestrian-walking became difficult and that one death was attributed to the storm. A sign pole, snapped by wind, landed on a 23-year-old man, crushing his skull and killing him instantly, while two others were knocked unconscious. Awnings and signs on many buildings broke and the canvas roofing at the Fire Department headquarters was blown off. Closer to the waterfront, along the Battery seawall, waves and tides were reported to be some of the highest in recent memory of the fishermen and sailors. Spray and debris were thrown over the wall, making working along the waterfront dangerous. Small craft in New York Harbor were thrown off course and tides and currents in the Hudson River made navigation difficult. In Brooklyn, "The New York Times" reported that trees were uprooted, signs and similar structures were blown down, and yachts were torn from moorings with some suffering severe damage. Because of the direction of the wind, Coney Island escaped the fury of the storm, though a bathing pavilion at Bath Beach suffered damage from wind and waves.

In Connecticut, winds gusted up to about. The apple crops, already endangered by drought conditions, suffered severe damage, with reportedly "hardly an apple left on a tree in the entire state". Prior to the storm, the apple crop was considered the largest in years. In the town of Orange, twelve large tents at a fair were ripped. At another fair in New Milford, fifteen tents collapsed, forcing closure of the fair. Along the coast, the storm produced abnormally high tides, with tides reaching their highest heights in six years at Westbrook. Water reached the bulkheads and remained there for several hours. In Rhode Island, the storm left damage in the vicinity of Providence. Telegraph and telephone services were interrupted, but not to such a large extent. Some small crafts in Narragansett Bay received damage, while apple orchards experienced slight losses.

Lightning produced by the storm ignited a number of brush fires in Massachusetts, particularly in the southeastern portions of the state, with winds spreading the flames. In Plymouth and other nearby towns, some residents evacuated from the fires by boat. Most cottages around the Big Long, Gallows, Halfway, and Little Long ponds were reduced to burning coals. In Everett, orchards in the Woodlawn section suffered complete losses of fruit. Two wooden frame building were demolished, while winds also toppled fences throughout the city. Winds damaged many telephone and electric wires in Cambridge. A lineman sent to fix the electrical wires nearly died when a pole snapped during a fierce wind gust. Orchards in the city suffered near complete loss and many shade trees were also damaged. At least a few chimneys toppled and several others were left leaning. A new bathhouse at Harvard University lost a portion of its tin roof and its copper cornices. At Cape Cod, a wind speed of was observed at Highland Light in North Truro. Waves breached the sane dunes at multiple locations along the cape, with water sweeping across a county road at Beach Point in North Truro. A number of fishing boats sank and several fishhouses were inflicted severe damage.

Strong winds in Vermont generated rough seas in Lake Champlain. Early reports indicated that a schooner sunk near Adams Ferry with no survivors, but the vessel was later found safely anchored at Westport, New York. According to a man near the lake, all water from the New York portion of the lake was blown to the Vermont side, crashing ashore in waves as high as. In the state capital of Montpelier, several large trees at the state house were uprooted. Within Montpelier and vicinity, farmers suffered some losses to apples and corn. Telephone and telegraph services were almost completely cut off. In Vergennes, a number of telephone wires snapped, while many apples, pears, and plums were blown off the trees. Additional damage to fruit and shade trees occurred in Middlebury and Winooski. The city of Burlington experienced its worst storm in many years. Winds downed all telephone and telegraph wires, whereas many trees had severe damage. Some homes were deroofed.

In New Hampshire, the storm left extensive in the city of Nashua. Winds tore roofs off a number of buildings, with several roofs landing on the streets or telephone wires. Chimneys in each section of the city collapsed; many people narrowly escaped injury or death. In Nashua and the nearby cities of Brookline and Hollis, thousands of dollars in losses occurred to apple crops, described as "practically ruined". The city of Manchester was affected by "one of the most furious windstorms which visited this city in years." Telephone and telegraph communications were nearly completely out for several hours, while windows shattered and trees snapped. Street railway traffic experienced delays.

From September 12–14, the extratropical remnants of the Galveston hurricane affected six Canadian provinces, resulting in severe damage and extensive loss of life. Peak winds reached 49–77 mph (79–124 km/h) in Toronto, breaking windows throughout the city. A fire broke out at a flour mill in Paris, Ontario, and the flames were fanned by the storm, resulting in $350,000 in damage to the mill and 50 other stores and offices. Total crop damage in Ontario alone amounted to $1 million. Impact to crops was particularly severe at St. Catharines, where many apple, peach, pear, and plum orchards were extensively damaged. At Lake Ontario, high winds wrecked havoc on vessels, beaching several boats, destroying a number of boats, and setting some others adrift. One person died in Niagara Falls when a man attempted to remove debris from a pump station, but he was swept away into the river instead.

Maximum rainfall in Canada reached 3.9 in (100 mm) in Percé, Quebec. In Nova Scotia, damage was reported in the Halifax area. A number of fences and trees fell over, while windows shattered and a house under construction collapsed. Two schooners were driven ashore at Sydney and a brigantine was also beached at Cape Breton Island. Another schooner, known as "Greta", capsized offshore Cape Breton Island near Low Point, with the fate of the crew being unknown. The majority of loss of life occurred due to numerous shipwrecks off the coast of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island. The overall death toll in Canada is estimated to be between 52 and 232, making this at least the eighth deadliest hurricane to affect Canada. The large discrepancy between the fatality figures is due to the fact that many people were reported missing in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and later presumed to be dead.

In less than 24 hours the city of Galveston was effectively obliterated. The final death toll is not known with certainty but the most conservative estimate is around 6,000. Most historians believe the loss of life to be in the area of 8,000 with some suggesting as many as 12,000 perished. With the city in ruins and rail lines to the mainland destroyed, the survivors had little to live on until relief arrived.

Survivors set up temporary shelters in surplus U.S. Army tents along the shore. They were so numerous that observers began referring to Galveston as the "White City on the Beach". Others constructed so-called "storm lumber" homes, using salvageable material from the debris to build shelter.

Reporter Winifred Bonfils, a young journalist working for William Randolph Hearst, was the first reporter on the line at the flood's aftermath. She delivered an exclusive set of reports and Hearst sent relief supplies by train.

By September 12, Galveston received its first post-storm mail. The next day, basic water service was restored, and Western Union began providing minimal telegraph service. Within three weeks, cotton was again being shipped out of the port.

Before the Hurricane of 1900, Galveston was considered to be a beautiful and prestigious city and was known as the "Ellis Island of the West" and the "Wall Street of the Southwest". However, after the storm, development shifted north to Houston, which was enjoying the benefits of the oil boom. The dredging of the Houston Ship Channel in 1909 and 1914 ended Galveston's hopes of regaining its former status as a major commercial center.

The Galveston city government was reorganized into a commission government, a newly devised structure wherein the government is made of a small group of commissioners, each responsible for one aspect of governance. This was prompted by fears that the existing city council would be unable to handle the problem of rebuilding the city. The apparent success of the new form of government inspired about 500 cities across the United States to adopt a commission government by 1920. However, the commission government fell out of favor after World War I, with Galveston itself switching to council–manager government in 1960.

To prevent future storms from causing destruction like that of the 1900 hurricane, many improvements to the island were made. The first of the Galveston Seawall, high, were built beginning in 1902 under the direction of Henry Martyn Robert. An all-weather bridge was constructed to the mainland to replace the ones destroyed in the storm.

The most dramatic effort to protect the city was its raising. Dredged sand was used to raise the city of Galveston by as much as above its previous elevation. Over 2,100  buildings were raised in the process of pumping sand underneath, including the 3,000-ton St. Patrick's Church. The seawall and raising of the island were jointly named a National Historical Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2001.

In 1915, a storm similar in strength and track to the 1900 hurricane struck Galveston. The 1915 storm brought a 12-ft (4-m) storm surge that tested the new seawall. Although 53 people on Galveston Island lost their lives in the 1915 storm, this was a great reduction from the thousands who died in 1900. Other powerful tropical cyclones would test the effectiveness of the seawall, including Hurricane Carla in 1961, Hurricane Alicia in 1983, and Hurricane Ike in 2008. Although Galveston was flooded by storm surge during Carla, severe coastal flood-related damage primarily occurred to structures unprotected by the seawall. Following Hurricane Alicia, the Corps of Engineers estimated that the seawall prevented about $100 million in damage. Despite the seawall, Ike left extensive destruction in Galveston due to storm surge, with preliminary estimates indicating that $2 billion in damage occurred to beaches, dwellings, hospitals, infrastructure, and ports. Damage in Galveston and surrounding areas prompted proposals for improvements to the seawall, including the addition of floodgates and more seawalls.

In historiography, the hurricane and the rebuilding afterward divide what is known as the "Golden Era" (1875–1900) from the "Open Era" (1920–1957) of Galveston. The most important long-term impact of the hurricane was to confirm fears that Galveston was a dangerous place to make major investments in shipping and manufacturing operations; the economy of the Golden Era was no longer possible as investors fled. In 1920, Prohibition and tax law enforcement opened up new opportunities for criminal enterprises related to gambling and bootlegging in the city. Galveston rapidly became a prime resort destination enabled by the "open" vice businesses on the island. This new entertainment-based economy brought decades-long prosperity to the island.

To commemorate the hurricane's 100th anniversary in 2000, the 1900 Storm Committee was established and began meeting in January 1998. The committee and then-Mayor of Galveston, Roger Quiroga, planned several public events in remembrance of the storm, including theatrical plays, an educational fundraising luncheon, a candlelight memorial service, a 5K run, the rededication of a commemorative Clara Barton plaque, and the dedication of the Place of Remembrance Monument. At the dedication of the Place of Remembrance Monument, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word sang Queen of the Waves and 10 roses and 90 others were placed around the monument to commemorate the 90 nuns and 10 children who perished after the hurricane destroyed the St. Mary's Orphans Asylum. Speakers at the candlelight memorial service included U. S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who was born in Galveston; Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration D. James Baker; and CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather, who gained fame for his coverage during Hurricane Carla in 1961. "The Daily News" published a special 100th anniversary commemorative edition newspaper on September 3, 2000.

The last reported survivor of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Mrs. Maude Conic of Wharton, Texas, died November 14, 2004, at the claimed age of 116, although the 1910 census and other records indicate she was younger than that.

Today, Galveston is home to Port of Galveston, the oldest port along the United States Gulf Coast to the west of New Orleans. The city has three institutes of higher learning – Galveston College, Texas A&M University at Galveston, and the University of Texas Medical Branch. American National Insurance Company, a major insurance corporation, is based in Galveston. Homes and other buildings that survived the hurricane have been preserved, and give much of the city a Victorian look. The seawall, since extended to, is now an attraction itself, as hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions have been built along its length.

The Galveston Historical Foundation maintains the Texas Seaport Museum at Pier 21 in the port of Galveston. Included in the museum is a documentary titled "The Great Storm", that gives a recounting of the 1900 hurricane.

1900 Galveston hurricane

In 1900, the city of Galveston, Texas, was a booming town. According to the 1900 Census, the population of Galveston was 37,788, an increase from 29,084 people recorded in the 1890 Census. The city was fourth largest municipality in the state of Texas in 1900 and among the highest per capita income rates in the United States. Galveston had many ornate business buildings in a downtown section called The Strand, which was considered the "Wall Street of the Southwest." The city's position on the natural harbor of Galveston Bay along the Gulf of Mexico made it the center of trade in Texas, and one of the busiest ports in the nation. With this prosperity came a sense of complacency.

Isaac Cline claimed that he took it upon himself to travel along the beach and other low-lying areas warning people personally of the storm's approach. These reports by Cline and his brother, Galveston meteorologist Joseph L. Cline, have been called into question in recent years, as no other survivors corroborated these accounts. In fact, Cline's role in the disaster is the subject of some controversy. Supporters point to Cline's issuing a hurricane warning without permission from the Bureau's central office; detractors (including author Erik Larson) point to Cline's earlier insistence that a seawall was unnecessary and his belief that an intense hurricane could not strike the island.

Heavy rainfall fell in Cuba in association with the storm, including up to 12.58 in (320 mm) in a 24‑hour period in the city of Santiago de Cuba. The city experienced its worst weather since 1877. The southern end of the city was submerged with about of water. Firefighters and police rescued and aided stranded residents. "St. George", a German steamer, ran aground at Daiquirí. In Jamaica, heavy rainfall from the storm caused all rivers to swell. Floodwaters severely damaged banana plantations and washed away miles of railroads. Damage estimates ranged in the thousands of British pounds.

The hurricane occurred before the practice of assigning official code names to tropical storms was instituted, and thus it is commonly referred to under a variety of descriptive names. Typical names for the storm include the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the Great Galveston Hurricane, and, especially in older documents and publications, the Galveston Flood. It is often referred to by Galveston locals as the Great Storm or the 1900 Storm.

Portions of southern Florida experienced tropical storm force winds, with a sustained wind speed of in Jupiter and in Key West. The hurricane left "considerable damage" in the Palm Beach area. Many small boats were torn from their moorings and capsized. The bulkhead of the pier was washed away, while docks and a number of seawalls were damaged. High winds in North Florida downed telegraph lines between Jacksonville and Pensacola. In Mississippi, the city of Pass Christian recorded winds of. Tides produced by the storm inundated about of railroad tracks in Pascagoula (then known as Scranton), while a quarantine station on Ship Island was swept away.

The first train to reach Galveston left Houston on the morning of September 8 at 9:45 a.m. It found the tracks washed out, and passengers were forced to transfer to a relief train on parallel tracks to complete their journey. Even then, debris on the track slowed the train's progress to a crawl. The 95 travelers on the train from Beaumont found themselves at the Bolivar Peninsula waiting for the ferry that would carry them, train and all, to the island. When it arrived, the high seas forced the ferry captain to give up on his attempt to dock. The train crew attempted to return the way they had come, but rising water blocked the train's path.

Ten refugees from the Beaumont train sought shelter at the Point Bolivar lighthouse with 200 residents of Port Bolivar who were already there. The 85 who stayed with the train died when the storm surge overran the tops of the cars.

The storm maintained tropical characteristics and Saffir–Simpson tropical storm-force winds (39–50 mph) when it crossed the Upper Midwest, with more than of rain being reported over most of the southern third of Wisconsin. Wind created problems all over, including over Lake Michigan, and other areas in the path of the storm had similar problems. (Tropical storms reach Wisconsin and surrounding areas to the east, west, and south once every 50 years on average with others in the 19th century, 1961, and (subject to debate) Hurricane Ike in 2008; tropical depressions hit twice to three times every two years; and subtropical storms and depressions hit equally or more rarely than their tropical counterparts.)

In New Hampshire, the storm left extensive in the city of Nashua. Winds tore roofs off a number of buildings, with several roofs landing on the streets or telephone wires. Chimneys in each section of the city collapsed; many people narrowly escaped injury or death. In Nashua and the nearby cities of Brookline and Hollis, thousands of dollars in losses occurred to apple crops, described as "practically ruined". The city of Manchester was affected by "one of the most furious windstorms which visited this city in years." Telephone and telegraph communications were nearly completely out for several hours, while windows shattered and trees snapped. Street railway traffic experienced delays.

In less than 24 hours the city of Galveston was effectively obliterated. The final death toll is not known with certainty but the most conservative estimate is around 6,000. Most historians believe the loss of life to be in the area of 8,000 with some suggesting as many as 12,000 perished. With the city in ruins and rail lines to the mainland destroyed, the survivors had little to live on until relief arrived.

Survivors set up temporary shelters in surplus U.S. Army tents along the shore. They were so numerous that observers began referring to Galveston as the "White City on the Beach". Others constructed so-called "storm lumber" homes, using salvageable material from the debris to build shelter.

Reporter Winifred Bonfils, a young journalist working for William Randolph Hearst, was the first reporter on the line at the flood's aftermath. She delivered an exclusive set of reports and Hearst sent relief supplies by train.

By September 12, Galveston received its first post-storm mail. The next day, basic water service was restored, and Western Union began providing minimal telegraph service. Within three weeks, cotton was again being shipped out of the port.

Before the Hurricane of 1900, Galveston was considered to be a beautiful and prestigious city and was known as the "Ellis Island of the West" and the "Wall Street of the Southwest". However, after the storm, development shifted north to Houston, which was enjoying the benefits of the oil boom. The dredging of the Houston Ship Channel in 1909 and 1914 ended Galveston's hopes of regaining its former status as a major commercial center.

The Galveston city government was reorganized into a commission government, a newly devised structure wherein the government is made of a small group of commissioners, each responsible for one aspect of governance. This was prompted by fears that the existing city council would be unable to handle the problem of rebuilding the city. The apparent success of the new form of government inspired about 500 cities across the United States to adopt a commission government by 1920. However, the commission government fell out of favor after World War I, with Galveston itself switching to council–manager government in 1960.

To prevent future storms from causing destruction like that of the 1900 hurricane, many improvements to the island were made. The first of the Galveston Seawall, high, were built beginning in 1902 under the direction of Henry Martyn Robert. An all-weather bridge was constructed to the mainland to replace the ones destroyed in the storm.

The most dramatic effort to protect the city was its raising. Dredged sand was used to raise the city of Galveston by as much as above its previous elevation. Over 2,100  buildings were raised in the process of pumping sand underneath, including the 3,000-ton St. Patrick's Church. The seawall and raising of the island were jointly named a National Historical Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2001.

The last reported survivor of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Mrs. Maude Conic of Wharton, Texas, died November 14, 2004, at the claimed age of 116, although the 1910 census and other records indicate she was younger than that.

Today, Galveston is home to Port of Galveston, the oldest port along the United States Gulf Coast to the west of New Orleans. The city has three institutes of higher learning – Galveston College, Texas A&M University at Galveston, and the University of Texas Medical Branch. American National Insurance Company, a major insurance corporation, is based in Galveston. Homes and other buildings that survived the hurricane have been preserved, and give much of the city a Victorian look. The seawall, since extended to, is now an attraction itself, as hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions have been built along its length.

The Galveston Historical Foundation maintains the Texas Seaport Museum at Pier 21 in the port of Galveston. Included in the museum is a documentary titled "The Great Storm", that gives a recounting of the 1900 hurricane.