Hurricane Dolly versus Gulf’s Dead Zone

Joshua S Hill — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:17:19 +0000

The dead zone that grows and shrinks in the Gulf of Mexico, at the outlet of the Mississippi River, has long been on my radar. Hurricanes too, have long been on my agenda, for fear that global warming is increasing their intensity and frequency. However I never thought that I would report on both in the same article, especially in this way.

According to Nancy Rabalais, head of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, the recent hurricane that swept through the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Dolly, managed to keep in check the growth of the dead zone.

“If it were not for Hurricane Dolly, the size of the Dead Zone would have been substantially larger,” she said in a news release sent from the consortium’s research vessel, the Pelica, as it returned from its annual mapping cruise, carrying Rabalais out at the same time each year to measure the area.

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Hurricane Dolly versus Gulf’s Dead Zone