The Mediterranean Sea Is So Hot, It’s Forming Carbonate Crystals

The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most polluted water bodies in the world, with 2 million particles of microplastic found in a single square meter. Bialik doesn't know if aragonite is forming around microplastics. Any nucleation center could be where they form. Microplastics could also be a possibility. More research is needed.

As these crystals form, they release CO 2. Fifteen percent of the gas that the Mediterranean Sea emits to the atmosphere is accounted for by them.

As the sea warms up and loses its CO 2, both from the water and from the crystals, its acidity goes down. As humans emit more CO 2 into the atmosphere, the oceans absorb more of it, raising acidity in the water. Acidification makes it harder for organisms to build shells. As the Mediterranean warms, it gets more basic and reverses the acidification.

It should be good for the calcifiers. It's not certain. "Many of them have specific temperature ranges in which they can build their shells." The heat stresses the organisms in a different way if the sea is getting less acidic. The stress of being constantly exposed to high levels of microplastics is included.

It's not clear if aragonite is forming in more places. The waters around the Bahamas and in the Persian Gulf are turning a color of calcium carbonate due to a phenomenon called "Whiting Events." There wasn't an obvious clue in the Eastern Mediterranean. They found the crystals in their traps.

A marine chemist who wasn't involved in the research says that the area has a variety of conditions that have to happen. The question is whether or not that environment is special or not. I don't know what to think about that.

It is possible that the conditions in the eastern Mediterranean aren't common in other places. It could be causing a climate problem if Aragonite crystal formation messes with the water's ability to absorb atmospheric CO 2.

When it turns on and when it shuts down, we don't fully understand what's going on. We didn't think it happened on this scale in open waters. We still don't know a lot about it.