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.
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