Orange Beach and the mystery of the rust-colored sea shells.

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Orange Beach and the mystery of the rust-colored sea shells.:
Orange Beach and the mystery of the rust-colored sea shells.




During our sunset stroll on the beach a few weeks ago, Max and I were busy "shunting", or shell-hunting. We kept picking up these deep orange, rust-colored shells unlike the shells we've found along the beach in the past. The shapes were the same, but this bright orange color really stood out as different. So we decided to try and come up with a few hypotheses to explain the mystery of the orange shells.
HYPOTHESIS #1: More iron is oxidizing in the water because when the Gulf oil spill occurred, iron ore exploded into the water. (Max's first guess)
HYPOTHESIS #2: The chemical dispersant used after the Gulf oil spill served to disperse large pools of floating oil but it also served to release or oxidize iron deposits already existing in the water. (Max's guess after learning about dispersant/flocculant)
HYPOTHESIS #3: After the oil spill, the iron ore floated up and got stuck in the oil that was leaking into the Gulf. Then the dispersant dispersed the oil along with the iron. (Max's combo guess)
We decided that we needed to answer two questions in order to narrow down our hypotheses. First, we needed to know what chemical flocculant in the Gulf. Then, we needed to know what effects the chemicals in this dispersing solution might have on a variety of existing natural resources, including iron. To find answers to our questions, we searched the internet for descriptons of flocs used as well as their effects on biotic communities and their chemical interactions with other agents. We found the following to be interesting:

Other names for chemicals that serve in conjunction with flocculants, or plays roles similiar to flocculants, are called thinners, dispersants, coagulants, and de-emulsifiers.
Deepwater corals didn’t escape the ecological damage of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

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