Pacific Ocean is turning acidic...

[Jubilee on Earth]

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN2251795320080522

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Carbon dioxide spewed by human activities has made ocean water so acidic that it is eating away at the shells and skeletons of starfish, coral, clams and other sea creatures, scientists said on Thursday.

Marine researchers knew that ocean acidification, as it's called, was occurring in deep water far from land. What they called "truly astonishing" was the appearance of this damaging phenomenon on the Pacific North American continental shelf, stretching from Mexico to Canada.

"This means that ocean acidification may be seriously impacting our marine life on our continental shelf right now, today," said Richard Feely of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, part of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration... (More at the above link...)

:ohno

[icebear]

this dosen't seem to make any sense

[Chariots]

70's it was the coming ice age. 90's global warming, now it is ocean acidification. Man is constantly trying to take credit for the direction God's creation goes.

[icebear]

those deep ocean vents constantly spew acidic volcanic gasses.... and they blame us.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/icebear713/smilies/headache.gif

[Kerusso02]

Carbon dioxide is soluble in water, in which it spontaneously interconverts between CO2 and H2CO3 (carbonic acid). The relative concentrations of CO2, H2CO3, and the deprotonated forms HCO3− (bicarbonate) and CO32−(carbonate) depend on the pH. In neutral or slightly alkaline water (pH > 6.5), the bicarbonate form predominates (>50%) becoming the most prevalent (>95%) at the pH of seawater, while in very alkaline water (pH > 10.4) the predominant (>50%) form is carbonate. The bicarbonate and carbonate forms are very soluble, such that air-equilibrated ocean water (mildly alkaline with typical pH = 8.2 – 8.5) contains about 120 mg of bicarbonate per liter.

What i dont get though, is that as temperatures (water temps) increase, the amount of carbon dioxide that can dissolve into the water decreases (reducing the acidity). So if the water is getting more acidic shouldnt that mean that the water temperature is dropping, and have nothing to do with the amount produced?

[farmgirl]

I agree with ice bear, it seems far more likely that underwater volcanic activity is causing acidification. Lately many things like glaciers melting and ice sheets disappearing have been touted as "proof" of global warming in the media. Later, it turns out to be volcanic activity causing these, but that never makes the news.

[Biblenuggetlady]

I couldn't get the link to open, does the article state the period of time they've noticed this happening? Like the last decade........or since Sumatra? :thinking Thinking about icebears comment, after Sumatra a big underwater volcano went off, off the coast of Japan and was, by chance, photographed showing the water spraying into the air.

[Jubilee on Earth]

Sorry... I fixed the link...

[Anddra]

those deep ocean vents constantly spew acidic volcanic gasses.... and they blame us.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/icebear713/smilies/headache.gif

That is exactly what I was thinking. Increased levels of volcanic activity will result in increased acidity. :idunno

[Issachar]

Kerusso02, I actually followed you on that post. :) I'm no chemist, but I do read "stuff" as a hobby plus I do a lot in homeschooling with my children.

Good point about the acidity and temperature.

Imho, the world is waaaaay to big and complex with too many unknown factors for man to understand it well enough to draw some of the correlations that he attempts to draw.

Issachar