dead zone

English

Dead zone with sediment from the Mississippi River carrying fertilizer to the Gulf of Mexico

Dead zones of a fortification

Pronunciation

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Noun

dead zone (plural dead zones)

1. An area with no life.
2. (ecology) An area of the ocean where oxygen levels are too low to support life, especially as a result of pollution.
   • 1999 December 26, The Observer:

     Planet Earth Research this year discovered that humans have created at least 50 ‘dead zones’ (zones where there is no oxygen) in the sea through pollution, and have extinguished other species at 1,000 times the natural rate in evolution.

   • 2012, Charles Clover, ‘Up To Our Necks’, Literary Review, number 399:

     It is only really in the past decade that science has begun to tell us that the man-made changes now occurring in the oceans – from acidification to overfishing to the growth of dead zones – represent some of the greatest threats to life on Earth.

   • 2014, Chris Maser, Interactions of Land, Ocean and Humans: A Global Perspective‎^[1], CRC Press, →ISBN, page 118:

     By the time the Mississippi enters the gulf, its current has been transformed into a conduit for chemical nutrients, and this enriched current stimulates massive blooms of phytoplanktons. Consequently, it forms a dead zone the size of Massachusetts (7,900 square miles or 20,461 square kilometers) every summer, which has existed since the 1970s and supports almost no life beyond phytoplankton and bacteria.

3. (telecommunications) A region where mobile phones do not operate because there is no base station or repeater nearby.

   Synonym: notspot

   • 2005, Andrew Mennen, It's Your Call: The Complete Guide to Mobile Phones‎^[2], Relianz Communications Pty Ltd, →ISBN, page 74:

     When you are in a dead zone, most of your call drops or your phone doesn't work at all.

4. (sports, gridiron football) Part of the field, entered by a player when they are on their opponent's side of the field but kicking a field goal would probably be unsuccessful and punting the ball would not dramatically change field position.
5. (military, historical) Area near a fortification that is relatively sheltered from defending fire, because direct fire from other parts of the walls cannot be directed around a curved wall.
6. (video games) A region within the player's viewpoint that is less sensitive to small movements, aiding accurate firing of weapons etc.

Derived terms

• temporal dead zone

 

Further reading

• dead zone (ecology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dead zone (gridiron football) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dead zone (cell phone) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• dead zone (military) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia