Researchers say this year’s "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico is the smaller than expected

 Researchers say this year’s "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico is the smaller than expected.  

Scientists with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium said the dead zone measures about 2,720 square miles – making it the fourth smallest since they started mapping the area in 1985.

Previous estimates were that the dead zone would be about 6500 square miles.

The Gulf dead zone forms each spring and summer off the Louisiana and Texas coast when oxygen levels drop too low to support most life in bottom and near-bottom waters.

The zone is caused by nitrates and nitrogen from fertilizer and urban runoff flowing down the Mississippi River.

The amount of nitrogen entering the Gulf of Mexico each spring has increased by about 300 percent since the 1960s, mainly due to increased agricultural runoff.

The largest hypoxic zone was in 2017 and it measured 8,776 square miles or about the size of New Jersey . 

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