The 2011 Arctic sea ice extent maximum that annually marks the beginning of the melting season appears to be the lowest ever, according to scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. The CU-Boulder research team believes the lowest annual maximum ice extent of 5,650,000 square miles occurred on March [...]
A new set of deep-sea volcanic vents has been discovered in the Southern Ocean by scientists on the Royal Research Ship James Cook. This is the fourth discovery made by the research team in three years. These discoveries suggest that deep-sea vents are more common than previously thought. The vents are 520 meters down in [...]
The abnormally cold weather this winter is a result of a change in wind patterns. Typically, the westerly winds warmed by Atlantic surface ocean currents maintain temperatures in Europe but this year, cold northerly Arctic winds are creating a colder winter. Scientists have suspected that more severe and longer-lasting cold intervals have been cause by [...]
Researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara and Texas A & M University report that methane gas concentrations in the Gulf of Mexico have already returned to near normal levels. They called their results “extremely surprising” because it’s only been months since the massive release occurred following the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The [...]
It is widely accepted that the oceans became oxygen-rich to the point they are today about 600 million years ago, in the Late Eriacaran Period. Biochemists at the University of California, Riverside have recently found evidence that the ocean went back to being anxic, or oxygen-poor, around 499 million years ago, soon after the first [...]
The size of the “Great Garbage Patch” floating somewhere between California and Japan is much smaller than portrayed in the media. According to an Oregon State University scientist and assistant professor, Angelicque “Angel” White, the patch is not bigger than the state of Texas; there is not more plastic in the ocean than plankton; and [...]
The University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science has launched a new “Oil Spill” web page http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/oil-spill/ designed to share the science being conducted at the Rosenstiel School that is relevant to the issues emerging from the incident on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. Designed for use by teachers, students and [...]
NASA is currently conducting Operation Ice Bridge, a six-year campaign of annual flights to each of Earth’s polar regions designed to help scientists bridge the gap between NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) — which is operating the last of its three lasers — and ICESat-II, scheduled to launch in 2014 by providing the needed data collected by researchers on board the DC-8, a 157-foot-long airborne laboratory and the largest aircraft in NASA’s airborne science fleet that accommodates many instruments.
El Niño, the periodic eastern Pacific phenomenon credited with shielding the United States and Caribbean from severe hurricane seasons among other benefits may be overshadowed by its brother in the central Pacific due to global warming, according to an article in the September 24 issue of the journal Nature.
Field Reports about the latest study on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill are the unvarnished, unedited journal entries of marine researchers in the field. They are intended to give readers a unique, inside look at the day-to-day nature of field work, an essential part of all marine science.
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