Search Results for: ocean

Engineers at the University of Liverpool are conducting research to reduce the threat posed to homes and property by ocean waves.

Approximately 10% of people in England live in areas at risk from flooding or coastal erosion. In the absence of man-made defences such as sea walls, the annual damage to property and roads in these areas would exceed £2 billion.

Terry Hedges, from the University’s Department of Civil Engineering has produced a computer model to assess volum

Tilt is a 100,000-year planetary pacemaker

Scientists have long debated what causes glacial/interglacial cycles, which have occurred most recently at intervals of about 100,000 years. A new study reported in the March 24 issue of Nature finds that these glacial cycles are paced by variations in the tilt of Earth’s axis, and that glaciations end when Earth’s tilt is large.

With more than 30 explanations proposed for these glacial cycles, researchers at the Woods Hole Oc

Predicting when large earthquakes might occur may be a step closer to reality, thanks to a new study of undersea earthquakes in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The study, reported in today’s Nature, is the first to suggest that small seismic shocks or foreshocks preceding a major earthquake can be used in some cases to predict the main tremors.

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Southern California (USC) report that some types of larg

A small autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, named Spray was launched yesterday about 12 miles southeast of Bermuda. The two-meter-(6-foot)-long orange glider with a four-foot wingspan will slowly make its way northwest, crossing the Gulf Stream and reaching the continental shelf on the other side before turning around and heading back to Bermuda, where it will be recovered in July.

The voyage will be the vehicle’s second trip across the Gulf Stream.Spray made history last

Research published in Nature shows theoretical feasibility of quake forecasting

Earthquakes along a set of fault lines in the Pacific Ocean emit small “foreshocks” that can be used to forecast the main tremor, according to research in the March 24 issue of Nature. It is the first demonstration that some types of large imminent earthquakes may be systematically predictable on time scales of hours or less. Statistically reliable forecasting of imminent quakes has been an elusive goal f

Scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and the University of Chicago have explained how a globe-encircling residue formed in the aftermath of the asteroid impact that triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs. The study, which will be published in the April issue of the journal Geology, draws the most detailed picture yet of the complicated chemistry of the fireball produced in the impact.

The residue consists of sand-sized droplets of hot liquid that condensed from th