Flooding made the mighty Mississippi River even mightier.
That's bad news for the Gulf of Mexico.
When it rains or floods along the Mississippi River, all that water washes primarily fertilizer from the cornfields in Iowa into tributaries, the Mississippi RIver and, ultimately, the gulf.
And those nutrients will lead to plankton blooms, which produce oxygen and creates a dead zone in the gulf.
Harte Institute of Gulf of Mexico Studies officials at A&M-CC said if the dead zone grows big enough, it could affect the Coastal Bend.
A dead zone currently exists in Corpus Christi Bay, but it's smaller than the gulf dead zone.
That one is caused by run-off from Oso Creek.
