Word: algal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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CHOLERA. In 1991 a freighter coming from South Asia emptied its bilges off the coast of Peru. Along with the wastewater came a strain of cholera that found a home in huge algal blooms stimulated by unusually warm ocean waters and abundant pollution. The microbe then made its way into shellfish and humans. So far, the epidemic has infected over half a million people and killed at least...
...mechanism, speculates Knoll, could have been erosion from steep mountain slopes. Over time, he notes, tons of sediment and rock that poured into the sea could have buried algal remains that fell to the sea floor. In addition, he says, rifting continents very likely changed the geometry of ocean basins so that water could not circulate as vigorously as before. The organic carbon that fell to the sea floor, then, would have stayed there, never cycling back to the ocean surface and into the atmosphere. As levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide dropped, the earth would have cooled. Sure enough, says...