The Dead Zone – not the movie

 

via Mississippi runoff expands Gulf ‘dead zone’ | TG Daily.

It’s currently about 3,300 square miles, or roughly the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, but researchers at Texas A & M University say it’s likely to become much larger.

Due to the massive amounts of runoff from the major flooding, the dead zone in the Gulf Of Mexico is expected to reach almost twice it’s usual size.  Right now its one-third of it’s anticipated maximum.  The large amounts of fertilizer and sediment in the runoff contribute to algae growth in the gulf.  The algae die, and their decomposition uses up all the oxygen in the water.  As a result, nothing can live in the “Dead Zone.”