UK - Mystery foam engulfs northern seaside town

[Pathfinder]

Mystery foam engulfs northern seaside town

Foam blown from sea covering streets and houses of Cleveleys, near Blackpool, is thought to be non-polluted algal matter

Ian Sample, science correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 29 December 2011 13.31 EST

A thick white blanket settled gently on the seaside town of Cleveleys near Blackpool on Wednesday, but this was no seasonal dusting of snow from above.

The Environment Agency dispatched officers to Princess Promenade to gather evidence as gobs of foam blew in from the sea and smothered streets, cars and houses.

The foam is whipped up by strong winds once or twice a year along the town's seafront and vanishes soon after, a spokeswoman for the agency told the Guardian.

Lab tests on samples collected in earlier years have found no signs of pollution. Decomposing algal matter is the prime suspect for the mysterious lather.
...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/29/foam-seaside-town-lather-cleveleys

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Une mousse myst?rieuse dans une station... by rikiai

[Emily]

Re: UK - Mystery foam engulfs northern seaside town

That's very strange. Even if the foam doesn't contain pollutants, pollution of some sort might have driven a shift in the algae ecology in the area. I noticed there was some earthquake activity there this summer.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...y-2291597.html

The sediments of the east Irish Sea in that area are contaminated with nuclear waste from Sellafield.

http://www.ospar.org/eng/doc/pdfs/R3C4.pdf

Most of the input of ‘soluble’ radionuclides
such as caesium-134, caesium-137, technetium-99,
strontium-90 and iodine-129 has been transported out of
the Irish Sea, whereas most of the plutonium and
americium-241 resides in subtidal, muddy sediments in
the eastern Irish Sea.