(or how to creep even Stephan King out)
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is an area of hypoxic (link to USGS definition) (less than 2 ppm dissolved oxygen) waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Its area varies in size, but can cover up to 6,000-7,000 square miles. The zone occurs between the inner and mid-continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico, beginning at the Mississippi River delta and extending westward to the upper Texas coast.
(paper posted on site hosted by Carlton College of Minnesota)
The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.
(Giant Plumes of Oil Found Forming Under Gulf of Mexico, NY Times, 05/15/10)
Oh, sorry … those plumes referred to above? Below.
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.
(Giant Plumes of Oil Found Forming Under Gulf of Mexico)
Oil plumes that are causing new hypoxic circumstances + previous hypoxic zones … doesn’t bode well for much of anything beyond hypoxia.
Some interesting and worth watching scientific conjecture in the NYT article regarding the connection between the deep water applications of toxic oil dispersants and the plumes.
“It appears that the application of the subsea dispersant is actually working,” the article quotes Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, “The oil in the immediate vicinity of the well and the ships and rigs working in the area is diminished from previous observations.”
Our current (and hopefully temporary) national anthem:
Oh no I can’t see
The oil bright and shiny
For dispersants we use
Keep the mess in the deep blue.
Because I know success when I see it … and when I don’t
…So, this is all caused by government interference in the marketplace.
Was it Sen. Sessions who was on the news this morning, saying that we should have had containment domes, etc. ready to be deployed just in case there’s a problem?
Is anyone going to ask him why, with two oil experts running the White House until 2009, business didn’t self-regulate itself out of this oil industry problem?
Oh, wait, they did! They got drilling permits without the environmental regulation required by law!
Mammon is a faithless god, always reaching into your wallet, giving back only what you can force him to.
and gross negligence on the part of those whom we have trusted to regulate them. BP succeeds in poisoning the planet and still the CEO is walking around free to make comments on how “little” the oil spill is when compared to the ocean!
Would any of us have believed this possible when we were reading our civics lessons in the fourth grade?