from ZeroHedge:

Thanks to advances in robotic technology, scientists have been able to study a massive “dead zone” in the Arabian sea – a region with so little oxygen that virtually nothing can live. Scientists began to observe the oxygen-starved zones in the 1970s – which naturally form in the deep sea, but are also found wherever excess nitrogen and phosphorous-based fertilizers run off into coastal waters.

By one account nearly 8-12% of the nitrogen fertilizer applied worldwide is lost from fertilized fields and transported to the sea. In some individual fields, the value can be as high as 50%.

Still more nitrogen is lost during the disposal of animal wastes from modern industrialized production of pork and chickens. Here nitrogen is lost during inadvertent overflow of waste lagoons, and nitrogen is transported to groundwater, which makes its way to stream channels. -blog.nature.org

By 2008, 405 dead zones – also known as Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZ) had been identified by Sweden’s Göteborg University.

New research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) has confirmed that the Gulf of Oman dead zone – floating in the strait bordered by Iran, Pakistan, Oman and the UAE, is indeed the largest in the world.

That’s not all… it’s growing.

Two robot submarines called Seagliders, each around the size of a small human diver, were able to collect data for eight months in parts of the Gulf of Oman previously unable to be monitored due to concerns over piracy and geopolitical tensions.

Read More @ ZeroHedge.com