An international team looks back 12 million years for clues about the formation of these vast areas where no life can survive A satellite image of the Northern Gulf of Mexico, where 'dead zones' can ...

It's the size of Florida. Dead zones are areas of the ocean with low oxygen that can no longer support marine life. It's caused by warming oceans and agricultural runoff. "The ocean is suffocating ...

More specifically, the tropics. Dead zones are low-oxygen regions in the ocean where few sea life can survive. The main cause is human pollution. Until now, dead zones were thought to dominate ...

Climate warming and nutrient pollution have reduced oxygen concentrations in the ocean by more than 2% since the 1960s. As a result, naturally occurring low-oxygen zones (also known as “dead zones”) ...

A satellite image of the Northern Gulf of Mexico, where “dead zones” caused by Mississippi River nutrient input can reach the size of New Jersey. Credit must be given to the creator.

Urban fires pose particular threats to marine ecosystems. Debris and toxins released from the fires can damage kelp forests and lead to destructive algal blooms that snuff out ocean life. Now that Los ...