Up to 500,000 tons of gaseous hydrocarbons were emitted into the deep ocean during Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil discharge, researchers reported in February in Nature Ceoscience. Such a large gas discharge—which generated concentrations 75,000 times the norm—could result in small-scale zones of "extensive and persistent depletion of oxygen" as microbial processes degrade the gases, the scientists said. The Macondo well blowout discharged not only liquid oil, but also hydrocarbon gases, such as methane and pentane, which were deposited in the water column.
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