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The oxygen minimum zone (OMZ), sometimes referred to as the shadow zone, is the zone in which oxygen saturation in seawater in the ocean is at its lowest. This zone occurs at depths of about 200 to 1,500 m (700–4,900 ft), depending on local circumstances.
An oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) is characterized as an oxygen-deficient layer in the world's oceans. Typically found between 200 m to 1500 m deep below regions of high productivity, such as the western coasts of continents. [1]
Equatorward winds drive the upwelling of low dissolved oxygen (DO), high nutrient, and high dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) water from above the oxygen minimum zone. Cross-shelf gradients in productivity and bottom water residence times drive the strength of DO (DIC) decrease (increase) as water transits across a productive continental shelf .
The oxygen consumption due to respiration of most of the sinking organic matter and lack of gas exchange, often creates an oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) in the mesopelagic. The mesopelagic OMZ is particularly severe in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and tropical Indian Ocean due to poor ventilation and high rates of organic carbon export to the ...
Open ocean areas with no oxygen have grown more than 1.7 million square miles in the last 50 years, and coastal waters have seen a tenfold increase in low-oxygen areas in the same time. [23] Measurement of dissolved oxygen in coastal and open ocean waters for the past 50 years has revealed a marked decline in oxygen content.
Red circles show the location and size of many dead zones (in 2008). Black dots show dead zones of unknown size. The size and number of marine dead zones—areas where the deep water is so low in dissolved oxygen that sea creatures cannot survive (except for some specialized bacteria)—have grown in the past half-century.
In mountaineering, the death zone refers to altitudes above which the pressure of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span. This point is generally agreed as 8,000 m (26,000 ft), where atmospheric pressure is less than 356 millibars (10.5 inHg; 5.16 psi). [ 1 ]
In the death zone, the human body cannot acclimatize. An extended stay in the death zone without supplementary oxygen will result in deterioration of bodily functions, loss of consciousness, and, ultimately, death. [3] [4] [5] The summit of K2, the second highest mountain on Earth, is in the death zone.