Sunday 15 December 2024 · below the Index · spike
Russian tankers sink in Black Sea storm
Two Russian oil tankers were damaged and sank in the Black Sea during a storm in mid-December 2024, causing an oil spill of approximately 4,300 tonnes. One vessel split in half near the Kerch Strait. At least one person was reported dead. The incident occurred amid heavy weather conditions.
Peak 57.7 on Tuesday 17 December 2024. The shaded band is the incident window.
Where the attention came from
Media-led, both over the window and on the peak day.
Bar = share of the extra attention over the whole window; the tick marks the share on the peak day alone, where the two differ.
How unusual it was
This was above 52% of all days since 2020, and the highest since Thursday 21 November 2024.
How far it spread
No vessel type moved — 0 of 6 vessel-type groups drew clearly more readers than usual.
Bars start at 1× — normal readership for that vessel type, the weeks before the incident. Grey = no clear lift. "Over time" shows each group's daily readers through the window; "All 12 articles" breaks the six groups back into their members.
How it was framed the frame glossary →
Lead frame: pollution event. Trade press was 4% of in-scope coverage — the story had left the trade press and gone mainstream. (Historical coverage is scored on headlines only.)
Acting, or acted upon
In 79% of coverage shipping was the thing acted upon rather than the actor; 20% of it was strongly negative in tone.
What the coverage said
- Russian tanker splits in half and sinks during heavy storm as oil spills into the Black Seaabc.net.au · 2024-12-15
- Badly damaged Russian tankers carrying thousands of tons of fuel spill oil near Black Seacnn.com · 2024-12-16
- Two Russian oil tankers sink in Black Seabbc.com · 2024-12-15
- Two Russian tankers sink in Black Sea spilling 4,300 tonnes of oiltheguardian.com · 2024-12-15
- As Fuel Washes Up on Black Sea Beaches, Third Russian Tanker Reports Leakmaritime-executive.com · 2024-12-17
- Third Tanker Sends Distress Call as Oil Washes Up on Russia's Black Sea Coastgcaptain.com · 2024-12-17
Gold rule = a national or international outlet, not a trade title.
- tier C: only a Wikipedia article, GDELT sub-vocabulary term, or social per-term query fired — not yet confirmed as a real maritime incident (Phase C naming/is_maritime_incident does that).
- coverage scored on title only (no excerpt) — measured ~8pp frame precision cost vs title+excerpt (docs/HANDOVER-incidents.md §2.3)
- coverage filtered to articles matching this incident specifically (137/137 kept) — see coverage.filter.terms
Maritime Attention Index, incident: Russian tankers sink in Black Sea storm, peak 57.7 on 17 December 2024. maritimeattentionindex.com/incidents/2024-russian-tankers-sink-in-black-sea-storm/