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Topics: World News, Environment
Aisha Nozari
People have been left in awe by a video that shows the 'incredible' point where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf of Mexico.
But there's actually a worrying reason why the phenomenon occurs.
You can take a look at the unusual sight below:
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The clip actually shows a ‘dead zone’ in Mexico’s Gulf.
The dead zone is created by the Mississippi River’s proximity, but isn’t natural. Instead, it’s the result of a ‘man-made hypoxic event’ that’s also ‘harmful’ to the environment.
Explaining exactly what’s going on in the footage, Snopes notes that the dead zone fluctuates and is the result of high-nutrient Mississippi River water packed with nitrogen pouring into the Gulf.
The result? Disrupted food chains, oxygen deficient waters and large algae blooms.
Snopes points out: “Forty-one percent of the continental United States (1.2 million square miles) drains into the Mississippi River and then out to the Gulf of Mexico.
“The majority of the land in Mississippi’s watershed is farm land. Seventy percent of nutrient loads that cause hypoxia are a result of agricultural runoff caused by rain washing fertiliser off of the land and into streams and rivers.”
The website continues: “Additionally, 12 million people live in urban areas that border the Mississippi, and these areas constantly discharge treated sewage into rivers.
“The farm and urban discharge includes nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous that is very important for the growth of phytoplankton. About 1.7 million tons of these nutrients are delivered by rivers into the Gulf of Mexico every year.”
The result of such a large-scale nutrient influx? Huge phytoplankton blooms. These then lead to increases in zooplankton that feed on phytoplankton.
Dead phytoplankton and zooplankton gather on the seabed, and once they decompose, oxygen is depleted, leading to hypoxic areas known as dead zones.
Dead zones have quadrupled in the last half-century, and there are at least 700 areas where oxygen is at dangerously low levels, up from 45 when research was first undertaken in the 1960s.
This means a large number of vital ecosystems are in danger of collapse, with sharks, tuna, marlin and other large fish species found to be at particular risk.
Grethel Aguilar, the acting director general of the IUCN, said the health of the oceans needs to be a key consideration.
"As the warming ocean loses oxygen, the delicate balance of marine life is thrown into disarray,” she said.
Worryingly, oceans are expected to lose around three to four percent of their oxygen by the end of this century.