Foul, Gas-Like Odor Rolls in Off the Ocean in Southern CA - July 25, 2012

Headaches Caused by Gas-like Odor - Southern California

Lifeguards in Encinitas were first to report the strong, pungent odor at about 5 p.m.
The odor was described as a gas-like smell rolling in off the ocean.

Soon after, 10News was flooded with calls. Residents from the coast all the way to Rancho Bernardo and 4S Ranch reported experiencing the smell.
Some complained of headaches and outdoor activities were canceled.

One Del Mar resident who did not want to be identified was inside the library in Cardiff at about 5 p.m. when the gas-like odor filled the entire building with the doors closed.

"There was none when I walked in that door and within 10 minutes, the entire library was filled," she said.

Eventually, she got in her car and drove to try and get away from the smell.

At about 5:30 p.m., the woman parked at San Dieguito County Park and took a photo of what she believes is some kind of aerosol compound she says fell from the sky and coated her car windows.

"I tried to wipe it and it was black and sticky and tried to put my window down and it smeared," she said.

She is convinced it was gas that was dispersing something with an oil component.

What could have caused such a thing? It appears as if officials are trying to say this is natural - but I am on this lady's side. Looking at the napkin of black substance, this just does not look natural at all.

Late Tuesday night, 10News received a statement from the City of Solana Beach that read, "Please do not be alarmed. The apparent smell of gas reported from Oceanside to La Jolla is not a leak of gas. The smell is caused by natural occurring condition from the ocean."

Thoughts? What type of natural occurrences relate to this headache of a phenomena?

Filled the entire library up with this stuff!
I've lived on the north coast of North California my entire life - never have I experienced anything like this.
I do hope some actual answers come out soon, rather than some hurried vague response such as "This is natural, go back to sleep California."

Living near the Gulf, I'd have to agree that this is a natural occurrence. Most likely from an algae bloom, or something like “red tide”. I think that the lady’s car is an separate issue, or everyone would have had the same problem. Possibly something that she drove through, or splashed unnoticed on her car while she was driving.

honestly i cannot think of anything naturally occuring that would do such a thing. Considering the amount of crap that China pumps into the air which in turn flows over the jet stream. i wouldnt be surprised if that could be a culprit where its carried by the clouds. i guess more info is needed.

Could it be possible that a gas leak.....say methane or something like it was leaking from the ocean floor and got disbursted throughout the Cali coast line by wind?

Odd indeed......but these are odd times we live in.

Maybe a plane that dropped some goo from 35000 feet? ........ this is very curious if it is indeed natural...just doesnt seem like it would be.

Late Tuesday night, 10News received a statement from the City of Solana Beach that read, "Please do not be alarmed. The apparent smell of gas reported from Oceanside to La Jolla is not a leak of gas. The smell is caused by natural occurring condition from the ocean."

Link

What natural occurring condition? What exactly is what people are smelling? Impacts on health? How often does it happen? When was the last time it happened?

I mean come on they could give some details if they know what it is as they claim. If they don't know what it is they should say so, instead of claiming "natural occurring". Besides shouldn't it be "naturally occurring"?

It's nothing that can be explained by rational thought, therefore it must be....

CHEMTRAILS!!!



Seriously though this gets me thinking. I wonder what it could be...

i live fairly close to there and noticed a smell like the one described coming from all the storm drains in the area earlier and assumed there was some kind of sewage problem or someone had dumped something (didnt think too much of it at the time)
and based on what ThinkingCap said whatever it is continues pretty far up the coast
anyway commenting to find the thread later

Originally posted by kaleshchand
What natural occurring condition? What exactly is what people are smelling? Impacts on health?

Algae blooms can produce toxins, which can not only kill fish, but cause medical issues for people in the surrounding area.

Red Tide
No deaths of humans have been attributed to Florida red tide, but people may experience respiratory irritation (coughing, sneezing, and tearing) when the red tide organism (Karenia brevis) is present along a coast and winds blow its toxic aerosol onshore. Swimming is usually safe, but skin irritation and burning is possible in areas of high concentration of red tide.

Originally posted by kaleshchand
How often does it happen? When was the last time it happened?

It happens every couple of years around here. The last instance in the Gulf was in 2011.

reply to post by defcon5


I've tried to search for anything that could be related to this. Here are some links to review:

Map, Search San Diego (Encinitas) coast, click on blue square.

Blue square = 7-14 days old on that map.

This map claims that the most recent occurrence was a week ago, and Encinitas is 20 miles from the blue box on the above map.
It shows evidence of "some", but by reading the bottom it says "below levels of detection" if I'm not mistaken.

reply to post by ThinkingCap


Gas-like smell....black and sticky....

Sounds more like some kind of petroleum based substance to me. But yeah, kinda weird. I could almost go for the algae explanation if it weren't for the "black and sticky which smeared..." And what kind of algae smells like natural gas or gasoline?

EDIT: yeah, now methane is an interesting suggestion, but what about the black and sticky.

possible release from an underground seismic fault,nothing to back this up
just an idea.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Yes, it's not acceptable. The statement is extremely vague, "naturally occurring condition from the ocean"

Red tide causing complete evacuation of a library?

Dunno --- can anyone find similar stories where algae has caused any of these symptoms? Specifically this black oil substance, that'd be great.

I was surfing today... I live in Oceanside. I didn't smell anything and haven't heard anything outside of this mentioned about it. Good heads up, but I don't think many people are freaking out yet. Lots of people still out in the water.

TA, there are a plethora of algaes that smell gassy. Many naturally produce methane which has a strong odor. There is also lots of micro bacteria in the waters off San Diego in the summer. The water gets warmer and things change, weird life forms flourish and some can probably produce a stinky smell when they reach the beach or the harbor in O side.

There is quite a lot of eye witness accounts stating that an unpleasant odour was a precursor to a major earthquake but the descriptions tend to say the odour was sulphurous rather than gas/petroleum smelling.

My two cents.

PS methane is odourless. It has additives put in it for domestic use so its detectable. If this was a natural event its not methane.

reply to post by W3RLIED2

"It smelled like it was a gas leak," added Maryanne Bache, who lives next door. "And if it wasn't a gas leak, it smelled like propane."
While the source of the smell is still under investigation, San Diego lifeguards said the odor was emanating from the ocean floor off Encinitas and was being carried by the wind.

Tuesday evening, air quality experts from the county theorized the stench might have been caused by rotting kelp.

The Air Pollution Control District says it will begin conducting tests Wednesday. It has special stations set up throughout the county which constantly gather air samples.

A similar "mystery odor" was reported throughout San Diego County last August. While experts conducted air quality tests in the days following, the source of that smell was never definitively determined.

Another source

Why is this being considered a "mystery odor" if it is nothing out of the ordinary, I wonder.

Watching that lady in the video above, she is very concerned.
You can see her windows covered in that stuff.
I do hope someone takes tests from her car.

Trace concentrations of a sulfurous gas were discovered in the Earth's atmosphere about three decades ago. The gas was also found to occur in ocean surface waters. Scientists have identified the sulfurous gas as dimethylsulfide (DMS). While it may sound like a noxious pollutant, dimethylsulfide is a naturally produced biogenic gas essential for the Earth's biogeochemical cycles. Learning more about this crucial gas will enhance our understanding of food chains and global scale climate processes, and allow for more intelligent environmental management. In the ocean dimethylsulfide is produced through a web of biological interactions. Certain species of phytoplankton, microscopic algae in the upper ocean, synthesize the molecule dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) which is the precursor to DMS.2 When phytoplankton cells are damaged, for example by grazing zooplankton or viral lysis, they release their contents into the seawater. Bacteria and phytoplankton are involved in degrading the released algal sulfurous compound DMSP to DMS and other products

read a couple of good posts...algee & all causing organic waste. methane gas smells
and the stink that builds up in the storm water drains

perhaps the algee or biological waste built up in a normal manner, with the prevailing currents/tides/water temps and suddenly there was a abrupt change to the seabed sediments....
like an ocean bottom 'rogue wave' that disturbed all the decaying sediment and released the decomposed smell into the atmosphere?

that might be called a 'naturally occuring' event

as might be the release of a pocket of natural gas that was once trapped in a layer of strata pretty deep in the Earth, well a couple of yards deep anyhow... that would be a natural occurrance as a excape point for the trapped gas could have been eroded away or dissolved by the abrasion of moving sand on the seafloor



then again... those pesky storm drains peke my curiosity,,, what if there was a large buildup of biomass and the trapped gasses caused a blowback into the drains that are placed way past the tidal shoreline...i can imagine a huge bubble of putrid gas that was a few hundred cubic yards large getting shot like a cannon into the waters close to 500 yards off the shore that nobody seen or was aware of.

i believe that in the last 30 years or so that dumping stormwater into the ocean was prohibited, but what about the very old stormwater and even sewage lines (24" conduits) that were used from the 1800s thru the 1940s



i was not even going to go to the chemtrail response.... but it was posted already

PLEASE READ THIS.

METHANE IS ODOURLESS.

What you smell when you turn on your gas is additives to allow detection.

3.8 just occurred in Cali though.

The methane hydrates in the ocean floor are heating up and becoming gaseous, this should be ringing major alrm bells.
For the hydrates to reach a point of instability and become gaseous is implying something is creating heat and affecting the layers of sediment in which they lie.
There is more methane gas stored in these hydrates than there is oxygen in the entirety of the atmosphere to burn it all away.
This stuff is extremely toxic, and has very little problems in causing suffocation of people who are in a cloud of it whose density is more than that of the air.
Is there a fracture in the crust that is allowing magma to move closer to the surface and is providing the heat to warm the hydrates from sub zero temperatures into a state of gaseous volatility?.
The fact that this "cloud" was sufficiently dense to affect the population is a warning, it does not take much of an increase in its density from being a bad smell to becoming a life threatening danger.
This has killed people before.

Gas smell could equal = Ring of fire waking up

2nd