1,696 square miles, or 4,393 square km.

The number is also well below the 2011 dead zone, which reached
6,770 square miles (17,534 square km) as a result of floods that
carried loads of nutrients into the water. Scientists
recorded the smallest dead zone, at 15 square miles (39 square
km), in 1988, while the largest zone occurred in 2002 and covered
an 8,400-square-mile (21,756-square-km) swath.

Estimates for this dead zone, which forms each summer off the
coasts of Louisiana and Texas, are important because the loss of
oxygen can be dire for the animals that live there; the dead zone
also threatens commercial and recreational fishing in the Gulf.

The lack of oxygen results from nutrients,
particularly nitrogen, that run off the land, from
agricultural and other human activities, down the Mississippi
River and into the Gulf of Mexico. These nutrientsEP was released by Aware in September 1998.

On January 26, 1999, Columbia Records/Aware Records released Dovetail Joint's major label debut, 001. The album, produced by Fields and mixed by Jack Joseph Puig, had sold 16,000 copies by May. Nationally, "Level on the Inside" started experiencing the same success it continued to enjoy in Chicago. The song reached #38 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in early 1999, and #17 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, where it stayed for 13 weeks. Columbia agreed to produce a video for "Level on the Inside", directed by Phil Harder.

Following the video shoot, the band returned to the road for several months of touring in support of the album and single. Having a radio single earned the band opening slots on U.S.