Way back in 2013 an oceanic heatwave developed in the Pacific. ScienceAlert reports it stretched from Alaska all the way down to Mexico, and it produced toxic algae blooms, messed with oceanic ecology and caused birds that rely on fish to starve. In fact, according to Earth Data, the heatwave triggered a temperature jump in the waters off the coast of Oregon, causing them to skyrocket some 12.6 degrees Fahrenheit in a single hour.
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00:00Way back in 2013, an oceanic heat wave developed in the Pacific.
00:08ScienceAlert reports it stretched from Alaska all the way down to Mexico, and it produced
00:12toxic algae blooms, messed with oceanic ecology, and caused birds that rely on fish to starve.
00:18In fact, according to Earth data, the heat wave triggered a temperature jump in the waters
00:21off the coast of Oregon, causing them to skyrocket some 12.6 degrees Fahrenheit in a single hour.
00:27Now, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says these types of events
00:31don't just happen on the surface.
00:33They can also occur on the bottom of the ocean as well.
00:35What's more, they can be even more extreme and last even longer than the one experts
00:39clocked in 2013.
00:41Previous studies have relied almost solely on buoy data to track these events, but the
00:45researchers say oceanic heat waves occurring deep underwater might not affect surface temperatures
00:50at all.
00:51Writing in their new report, quote, not only do bottom marine heat waves tend to persist
00:54longer than their surface counterparts, but there are many regions where bottom marine
00:57heat wave intensity tends to exceed surface marine heat wave intensity for the same location,
01:02spiking as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit on the ocean floor.
01:05With the researchers adding that since we often have no indicators on the surface, we
01:08might only see its deadly effects long after its impact has already begun to show.