Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

The Mysterious Blob

A giant slimy reeking blob of something is floating off the coast of Alaska. People have yet to figure out exactly what it is, but insist it is not petroleum-based in any way, that it is instead organic. I myself would wait for the lab analysis to come back before making statements about the nature of a previously unknown phenomenon. One speculation is that it could be some kind of algae. That's plausible. I'm going to laugh my tail off if it turns out to be something organic that eats oil or plastic, though. At any rate, this blob is probably not a good thing.
Tags: environment, nature, news
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  • 13 comments
siliconshaman

siliconshaman

July 17 2009, 20:24:48 UTC 11 years ago

Pretty sure i know exactly what that is, based on apperance and description..[the sulphurous smell is a good clue]

It's a large amount of pelagic bacterial mat, formerly growing on the ocean floor in a the cold dark anaerobic conditions under the ice.

Thing is, the rise in sea temperatures, and the increasing levels of O2 due to the sea ice melting and increasing the amount of ocean in contact with air, have killed it off in vast swathes... and as it decomposes it forms gases, and floats up to the surface.

and no, it's not a good thing.. it's a diagnostic indicating the Arctic deep ocean ecosystem is dying.
ysabetwordsmith

O_O

ysabetwordsmith

July 17 2009, 23:54:29 UTC 11 years ago

Oh, shit.

I have seen algae mats surface in ponds, and it's bad enough. If that happens to the ocean, much doom awaits.

This is disturbingly plausible as an explanation. It accounts for the fact that the phenomenon was unfamiliar. And it would be a lot worse than, say, bacteria that eat plastic or oil and leave gunk behind.
siliconshaman

Re: O_O

siliconshaman

July 18 2009, 00:08:49 UTC 11 years ago

The worrying part is yet to come.. ahve you ever heard of methal hydrates?

Basically, if the water temperature is rising at deep levels, then there's a risk these could spontaneously decompose and release vast amounts of methane...which is a very strong greenhouse gas [not to mention explosive in air].

Although, if it's a result of something else changing in the environment, it's still bad, since much of the bottom ecosystem is dependent on these bacterial mats. [it would be like all the grass dying off on the African Savannah.]
ysabetwordsmith

Re: O_O

ysabetwordsmith

July 18 2009, 02:50:41 UTC 11 years ago

Yes, I'm aware of the potential for methane doom. Some scientists theorize that previous global eruptions of methane may have contributed to or caused mass extinctions. At any rate it could shift the Earth's atmosphere from "overheating" to "actually on fire."

>>Although, if it's a result of something else changing in the environment, it's still bad, since much of the bottom ecosystem is dependent on these bacterial mats.<<

Yeah ... we better hope that global warming is caused by human activities, because then it is at least theoretically within our power to affect the process. If it's caused by something else, we probably can't influence, and if we can't adapt, we're just doomed. That would suck.

>> [it would be like all the grass dying off on the African Savannah.]<<

Or your lungs falling out when you cough. Some people forget how much of Earth's oxygen comes from the oceans (i.e. from algae and such). Any large-scale changes in an ecosystem generally mean that something is severely out of balance. Vast algae blooms and collapses worry me. Dying coral reefs worry me. A whole new flavor of doom is not what I need.

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