Science Lesson #3: Fun with Acronyms!

In my years as a budding young scientist, I've encountered innumerable acronyms. Some of them are useful, most of them aren't. I thought I'd share them with you in the event that you yourself encounter a few someday. Who knows, maybe you'll win $20 from your grandma in the event that there is a Jeopardy category with a few of these bad-boys slipped in there. Or say you're kidnapped, bound and gagged and your kidnappers leave a bottle marked BTEX within reach. From this list, you know that BTEX are chemicals in gasoline and gasoline is flammable, so while they're gone to buy sandwiches you kick it over. The next time one of your kidnappers flicks the cigarette he just burned you with onto the ground, BOOM! Jokes on them 'cause you just bought yourself a quick and ideally painless death. Won't you be glad that someone told you what BTEX means when you're sipping margaritas poolside with the big G in Heaven.

SST: Sea Surface Temperature
DO: Dissolved Oxygen
ACC: Antarctic Circumpolar Current
PF: Polar Front
SAF: Sub-Antarctic Front
IGPP: Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics
REDOX: Reduction and oxidation
LGM: Last Glacial Maximum
CTD: Conductivity, Temperature and Depth
CCD: Carbonate Compensation Depth
THC: Thermohaline Circulation (not the drug)
OAE: Ocean Anoxia Event
OMZ: Oxygen Minimum Zone
BTEX: Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene (chemicals in gasoline)
MCL: Maximum Contamination Level
MCLG: Maximum Contamination Local Goal
HSRAAFAYC: Holy Shit, Run Away As Fast As You Can!
DNAPLS: Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids
LDNAPLS: Low Density Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids
ODP: Ocean Drilling Project
VSMOW: Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water
PDB: Pee Dee Belemnite
DIC: Dissolved Inorganic Carbon
TCO2: Total CO2
CDT: Canyon Diablo Troilite
DON: Dissolved Organic Nitrogen
ANAMMOX: Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation (thanks, Mike)
NADW: North Atlantic Deep Water
PPM: Parts Per Million
PPB: Parts Per Billion
PPT: Precipitation or Parts Per Trillion
K/T: Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary (when all the dinosaurs died)
EPICA: European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica
LGS: Late Glacial Stage
ENSO: El Nino, Southern Oscillation
PDO: Pacific Decadal Oscillation
DO events: Dansgaard-Oeschger Events (rapid global warming events)
PAGES: Past Global Changes (shouldn’t this be PGC?)
PEP II: Polar Equator-Pole Program
PEEPOLE: I Wish This Was An Acronym
BP: Before Present (actually, before 1950. it's a long story)
MOR: Mid-Ocean Ridge
EPR: East Pacific Rise
SAF: San Andreas Fault