I was reading of the "Lake Erie Dead Zone" in one of Michigan's five Great Lakes (I'm from Detroit). In a nutshell it happens when the water at the bottom of the lake is depleted of oxygen. This happens for various reasons, one of them being the nutrient phosphorus being over-abundant in the water. There were others, but that doesn't affect the outcome of my question. Is water that has been depleted of oxygen just Hydrogen now? If not than what is it?
2007-02-08 05:34:20 · 7 answers · asked by duped4thelasttime 3 in Environment
All the above answers have missed an important point. The extra oxygen in a lake is held there in the form of hydrogen peroxide. The confusion comes in because 'H2O2' should actually be called 'hydrogen dioxide', but some doofus way back when goofed up and now everyone is confused. At the time of this writing, not one of the above answers used the term 'hydrogen peroxide', and we have been led to believe that water magically holds extra oxygen in some way we can't understand, and that hydrogen peroxide is bad for us.. It isn't, in the right concentrations--in fact, that is how marine life survives.
2007-02-10 09:57:15 · answer #1 · answered by Dorothy and Toto 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's still water. Take a glass of water and stir it like crazy. You will see bubbles form. Stop stirring and you will see the bubbles rise to the top and pop. Eventually all the bubbles are gone. This is similar to what is happening Lake Erie. The oxygen dissolved in the water there has been depleted. This oxygen is in addition to the oxygen that bonds to the hydrogen to create the water. It is, for lack of a better term, "stirred in" oxygen.
2007-02-08 06:01:24 · answer #2 · answered by Fin 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's still H2O. It's depleted of dissolved oxygen from the air and also oxygen produced by green plants, which take dissolved carbon dioxide, keep the carbon and give off oxygen as a waste product. If you leave a full water glass out over night, you may see bubbles clinging to the side in the morning. They came from the dissolved air.
2007-02-08 05:48:40 · answer #3 · answered by The Bird 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is still H2O. The oxygen depletion is a reference to the oxygen gas that is normally dissolved in the water, just like carbon dioxide is dissolved it soda.
That oxygen is needed for the fish and other marine creature to breathe. That is the reason aquarium need something to stir the water and oxygenate it.
2007-02-08 05:39:30 · answer #4 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Oxygen depletion means that most of the oxygen element is gone but not all of it. The seperation back to basic elements is virtually impossible to achieve outside a scientific environment. Bottom line -if you have water it cannot exist without its basic oxygen 2 base elements otherwise it would instantaaneously change its state to hydrogen gas. Water can contain other conjoining elements but its still water attached to other things.
2007-02-08 05:42:59 · answer #5 · answered by quantummaxq 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes it becomes H2 (hydrogen gas) and O2 (oxygen gas) and a significant portion becomes CH3 (Methane gas). Most of this gas stays trapped in the deep water because of the pressure. When the lake "turns over" in the spring the gas will be released. There are a few lakes in the world that buildup so much gas that the spring and fall turnovers release enough gas to be deadly.
2007-02-08 05:44:11 · answer #6 · answered by Perry L 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The oxygen that makes water stays there. What they're talking about is the O2 that fish breathe. You see, O2 (oxygen gas) is dissolved and held in solution by liquid water. This is what a fish's gills filters out of the water. Oxygen depleted water is water without this O2 held in solution.
2007-02-08 05:42:23 · answer #7 · answered by Ricky J. 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋