(urth) Seven American Nights question

[Gwern Branwen]

On  0, aaron <aaronsingleton at gmail.com> scribbled:
>    Thanks for everyone's input on this.  I had always assumed that the yellow
>    color came from oil or gasoline etc. leaking into the sea.  The only thing
>    that, to me, disputes the pollution theory is the fact that the captain
>    tells Nadan: "It's his country...bleeding to death."  That is why I
>    assumed crude oil "bleeding" from the earth.  But, after doing a little
>    research, I found several sources that confirm the erosion theory.  It
>    seems that dirt carried into the ocean from rivers turns the water yellow
>    (in the worst cases) or green (not quite as bad).  Again, thanks to all.
>
>    Aaron Singleton

And the captain isn't kidding about the bleeding to death thing. I remember the phrase 'soil erosion' popping up a distressing number of times in Jared Diamond's ''Collapse'' (usually in reference to something like the Mayan collapse, or the Fertile Crescent becoming unfertile, or Australia's environment...) and other places. It's still a little odd in America though - I personally associate yellow effluvium with more China and the Yellow River and company.

--
gwern
FDM GRU LRTS SIGDEV NACSI MEU/SOCPSAC PTT RFI ZL31 SIGDASYS TDM. SUKLO Schengen
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