The toxic barrels, who came to public in 2020, seem to have “halos” around them – and the investigators just found out why.
Scientists are finally discovering what is inside the mysterious “halo” barrels submerged off Los Angeles. Initially it was thought that they contained the DDT pesticide, but some barrels actually contain caustic alkaline waste, which prevent most of their life nearby.
Thousands of barrels of industrial waste has been deposited for decades to the bottom of the ocean to Los Angeles for decades.
However, scientists have never known that chemicals is that this junior iron is releasing to the environment.
Now, a study this Tuesday in PNAS Nexus revealed that some of the chemicals who break free from the barrel cemetery were identified as Fortmentely caustic alkaline – and that are still sufficiently concentrated to prevent most of the life that lives nearby.
But the story began almost 100 years ago. Between the 1930s and the early 1970s, radioactive wastedeo residues refinerieswaste chemicals, residue oil drilling e military explosives They were dumped into 14 deep water dumps on the southern coast of California.
This underground junior iron came to the public’s knowledge in 2020, when a report of the one revealed that surveys made by deep water robots had discovered Dozens of barrels scattered across the sea bottom.
Between 2021 and 2023, studies done by Scripps Institution of Oceanographyin California, they identified about 27.000 forms that seemed to be barris and more than 100,000 objects of debris at sea bottom.
Some suspected that the barrels, many of which are surrounded by Auréolas whitish in the sediment, contained the pesticide DDT (now forbidden), since the area is strongly contaminated by it. To this day, the total number of barrels at the bottom of the sea and what most of them contain remains a mystery.
(Part of) unraveled mystery
Now the new investigation has revealed that DDT contamination levels have not increased near the barrels. The conclusion was that the drums did not contain this chemical.
Three of the barrels analyzed had white halos around them and all samples from the proximity of these barrels had a extremely high pH (about 12) and very few microbes to live in them.
Given this context, the research team concluded that the barrels contained caustic alkaline waste, which can damage organic matter.
“So far, we have been looking for DDT above all. No one thought of alkaline waste before it; and we may have to start looking for other things too,” the investigation leader said, Johanna Gutlebenmicrobiologist of Scripps Institutionem .
As researchers found very limited levels of Microbial DNA near the barrels, they say that alkaline waste probably turned parts of the seabed into the seabed Extreme environments where most of life cannot survive.
However, as a note A, traces of some specialized bacteria were found – species of families adapted to alkaline environments, such as deep water hydrothermal sources and alkaline thermal sources.
What about the mysterious “halos”?
Ah, the halos… This investigation also discovered how the strange haonds are formed around the barrels.
When alkaline waste leaks from barrelsreact with magnesium in the water and create a mineral form of magnesium hydroxide, called bruciteforming a crust similar to concrete.
Brucite then dissolves slowly, maintaining the pH of the sediments high and causing reactions in the surrounding sea water. This results in the formation of calcium carbonate, which deposits as white dust around the barrels.
As scientists, cited by Live Science, refer, the fact that alkaline waste has persisted for more than half a century, rapidly dissipating in seawater, suggests that it should be considered as a persistent pollutant with long -term environmental impacts, similar to DDT.
Researchers suggest that white halos can now serve to identify that barrels contain alkaline waste so that the overall extension of contamination can be evaluated.
About a third of the barrels that have been seen so far have Halos, but it is not clear if this proportion will remain as more barrels are discovered.
