Thursday, July 27, 2006

Marine 'dead zone' off Oregon is spreading

A fundamental new trend in atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns in the Pacific Northwest appears to have begun, scientists say, and apparently is expanding its scope beyond Oregon waters.

This year for the first time, the effect of the low-oxygen zone is also being seen in coastal waters off Washington, researchers at OSU and the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary indicate.

There have been reports of dead crabs stretching from the central Oregon coast to the central Washington coast. Some dissolved oxygen levels at 180 feet have recently been measured as low as 0.55 milliliters per liter, and areas as shallow as 45 feet have been measured at 1 milliliter per liter.

1 comment:

JohnFen said...

Yep. I live in Newport, Oregon, and the dead zone is only one of lots of anomalous activity that's been going on in the past few years -- most of it geological (the Juan de Fuca subduction zone is just offshore), in the form of volcanic activity (such as Mt. Saint Helens) and a dramatic increase in earthquake activity. We've also had an unusual number of tsunami warnings. And let's not forget that UFO picture I took. :)