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The toxic barrels that drew public attention in 2020 seem to be “hala” around them – and researchers finally found out why. | Credit: Schmidto Ocean Institute.
Thousands of barrels of industrial waste debris from the bottom of the Los Angeles Ocean and are there for decades, but scientists still do not fully understand what chemicals this trash can drain into the environment.
The research now revealed that some chemicals leaked out of Cemetery cemetery It was found as a strongly alkaline, chemical opposite of the acid – and they are still enough to concentrate to stop most of their lives nearby.
Radioactive waste, oil refinery, chemical waste, oil drilling waste and military explosives were discarded between the 1930s and early 1970s 14 dumps in deep waters off the shores of southern CaliforniaAccording to the US Environmental Protection Agency;
This huge underground trash came to society in 2020 when an Times an article He revealed that deep -sea robots were discovered by dozens of structures tied over the seabed. Then, 2021 and 2023, further research provided by Institute of Scripps Institute of Oceanography In California found about 27,000 forms that looked like barrels and more than 100,000 garbage objects on the seabed; Some suspected that in barrels, many of which were surrounded by whitish halogen sediments, the pesticide DDT was now banned as this area is severely contaminated;
But to this day, the total number of bars on the seabed – and what most of them are, remains unknown.
Now Johanna GutlebenThe Scripps Microbiologist, and her colleagues revealed the results of sediment samples taken near five barrels using remotely controlled vehicle in 2021. They found that the DDT contamination level did not increase closer to the structures, so they say there was no chemical in the drums.
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Three of the structures of them around them were white hala around them, and all the samples of these structures had a particularly high pH (about 12) and live there very few microbes, so the team says the barrels contained caustic alkaline waste that could damage organic matter and expand high toxic metals.
Team study was published on Tuesday (September 9) in the magazine Pna Nexus;
“So far we have been mostly looking for DDT. No one has thought about alkaline waste before and may have to start looking for other things,” said Gutleben A a statement;
The sampling did not determine which specific chemicals were in barrels, but especially DDT production produces alkaline waste, as does oil refinement.
“One of the main flows of DDT production waste was acid and they did not do so into barrels,” Gutleben said. “It makes you think: what was worse than DDT acid waste to be worth the barrels?”
As researchers found a very limited level of microbial DNA near the barrels, they say alkaline waste probably turned the seabed parts into an extreme environment where most lives cannot survive. However, they found traces of some specialized bacteria-axis from families adapted to alkaline environments, such as deep-sea hydrothermal openings and alkaline hot springs.
The team also discovered how strange halo is formed. When alkaline waste leaks out of structures, it reacts with magnesium water and creates a mineral form of magnesium hydroxide called brucite, forming a concrete -like crust. Then the brucitis slowly dissolves, maintaining the pH high in the sediment and causing reactions in the surrounding sea water. This results in calcium carbonate, which determines the barrels as white dust.
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Given that alkaline waste has survived more than half a century instead of rapidly dissipated in sea water, it indicates that it should be considered a permanent pollutant with a long -term environmental impact, much like DDT, a co -author of the study Paul JensenScripps also said the report said.
“It is shocking that after 50 plus you are still seeing these effects,” he said.
Researchers suggest using white hala to determine which barrels contain alkaline waste, so the total extent of contamination can be estimated. Jensen said about a third of the structures that have so far been seen, but it is unclear whether this relationship will remain as more structures have been unveiled.