There Are Mystery Rings Around 500,000 Barrels on the Seafloor. They Shouldn’t Be There by Darren Orf
What You Should Know About Bathing In The Ocean: THINK TWICE BEFORE GOING IN THE OCEAN …
A massive environmental mystery has surfaced off California’s coast, where thousands of rusted barrels filled with an unknown chemical have been discovered lying deep underwater. These decaying containers are forming strange halo-like rings on the ocean floor, sparking alarm among scientists and environmentalists. Experts fear the chemicals could pose long-term threats to marine ecosystems and human health. The eerie sight has raised urgent questions about past industrial dumping practices. Authorities are now under pressure to investigate and determine the true scale of the danger. This discovery highlights the hidden scars humanity leaves beneath the waves.
Here’s What You Will Learn When You Read This Story:
- For decades, many chemical companies, as well as the U.S. military, treated the waters off the coast of southern California as a toxic dumping ground, creating 14 sites where chemicals like DDT were deposited.
- Some of those barrels of toxins have created halo-like circles around them, suggesting that hazardous material is leaking from the barrels.
- A new study analyzing these halos found that they mimicked the most extreme environments on Earth—those near hydrothermal vents—and were caused by alkaline waste interacting with magnesium in the water and forming a concrete-like crust called brucite.
From the 1930s until the 1970s, multiple government agencies approved the dumping of hazardous materials, including chemicals such as DDT and other caustic waste, at 14 locations off the coast of California. According to the Los Angeles Times, the idea at the time was that “dilution was the solution to pollution,” essentially using the immensity of the world’s oceans to dilute harmful chemicals to a harmless level of parts per million (ppm). To learn more about this go to the link below:
