9

There is speculation that the mysterious black rain that Japan had a few months ago was from China cremating bodies, and in particular, mass cremations from coronavirus victims.

Was this black sooty rain caused by mass cremations?

  • 5
    Probably the mass of the bodies would be far to small, but [biomass burning does contribute to black carbon](https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/long-term-trends-black-carbon-biomass-and-fossil-fuel-combustion-detected-jrc-atmospheric). Not sure if there are any forest fires in the area at the moment. Perhaps a starting point for someone answering the question. – gerrit Jun 18 '20 at 09:11
  • 3
    It seems to have been reported originally by https://soranews24.com/2020/03/04/black-rain-falls-over-parts-of-saitama-prefecture/ There apparently was a fire in a factory nearby but I haven't checked all the details yet. – Entropy Jun 18 '20 at 09:15
  • 1
    Very nice. Yes, around this time there was also the reports of 21 million missing cell phone users, which really fueled this. However, I remember seeing recently that a probably reason for the cell phones was due to people cancelling their second phone during covid. I am not sure if this quite makes sense, but it seems at least somewhat "reasonable". During covid I would expect phone use to go up though. –  Jun 18 '20 at 18:37
  • 1
    The daily mail article provides a far more likely but far less exciting explanation: *"It later emerged that a 'gigantic' fire had broken out in Hasuda around the time of the rainfall. It was the blaze, at what is thought to be a large commercial building, that was speculated to be the cause of the black rain."* – Philipp Jul 23 '20 at 09:13

0 Answers0