Gas and dust would have piled up in the dead zone, increasing its density and causing it to heat up by gravitational compression.

MSN: Earth's hot formation may be reason behind water shortage

When teachers guide students in gaining awareness that industrial agriculture writ large, for example, results in chemical runoff from nitrogen-based fertiliers in the Mississippi River that in turn creates a massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico so large that it is visible to the human eye through satellite distant imaging, students are able to grasp the basis for sustainable agriculture.

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Instead, gas and dust would simply have orbited around our star without moving inward, creating a so-called "dead zone" in the disk.

MSN: Earth's hot formation may be reason behind water shortage

Historically, golf was a dead zone after the PGA Championship in August.

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So when a phone clerk said the "World Edition" BlackBerry could keep him connected--even in Japan, a notorious dead zone for Western phones and personal digital assistants--Kozarsky was sold.

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