Search Results for: Ocean

One of the biggest questions in modern oceanography is how animals in the deep sea get enough to eat. Marine biologists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) recently published a paper that helps answer this question, at least for animals that live on the deep seafloor off the coast of Central California. After analyzing hundreds of hours of deep-sea video, Bruce Robison and his colleagues found that “sinkers”—the cast-off mucus nets of small midwater animals called larvacea

Most of the excess carbon dioxide pouring into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels will ultimately be absorbed by the oceans, but it will take about 100,000 years. That is how long it took for ocean chemistry to recover from a massive input of carbon dioxide 55 million years ago, according to a study published this week in the journal Science.

James Zachos, professor of Earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, led an international team of scientists t

A team of European and US scientists, using Cassini-Huygens data, have found that Saturn’s smoggy moon Titan may have volcanoes that release methane in the atmosphere.

These findings may lead scientists to revise the theories that the presence of methane in Titan’s atmosphere is mainly due to the presence of a methane-rich hydrocarbon ocean.

Infrared images taken by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini orbiter, show a bright, 30-kilom

Highlights from final report on December 26, 2004 tsunami’s impact in Banda Aceh

Waves more than 15 meters (49 feet) high. Flooding of 25 square miles of land. A coastline moved a mile. In a brief report in the June 9, 2005 issue of Science, University of Southern California tsunami expert Jose Borerro presents the results of the detailed survey he made on the scene at Banda Aceh, Indonesia following the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami

Banda Aceh and the nearby area of

Earth’s oceans are what make this a Blue Planet. Our seas influence the climate, produce most of the oxygen we breathe, serve as a means of transport and a major source of food and resources. Today’s World Ocean Day is a chance to learn more about the seas that surround us – and how satellite monitoring helps protect them.

Wednesday 8 June is the 13th annual World Ocean Day. Created in 1992 at the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro, World Ocean Day is an opportunity to c

Research at the University of Leicester Department of Geology is confirming how a plume of hot mantle rock rising beneath Africa is splitting the continental crust apart and driving a plate tectonic sequence that could eventually form a new ocean in Ethiopia.

The extending East African Rift is a 3,000 kilometre crack in the Earth’s surface, stretching from Malawi in the south, through Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, connecting with the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The c