Coast

NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) spacecraft launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:33 a.m. EST Thursday, February 8. Credit: NASA Television3, 2, 1 … LIFTOFF! A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 1:33 a.m. EST Thursday, February 8.A few paths in life are short and direct; more of them are…

Photo: Strauss Wind The Strauss Wind Project in Santa Barbara County, the first wind farm on California’s coast, is now online. The 98-megawatt (MW) Strauss Wind is near Lompoc, on the Central Coast, with Vandenberg Space Force Base to the south, west, and northwest. The location’s 3,000-acre topography is perpendicular to the predominant wind direction from the ocean, making it an ideal location to generate wind power. Strauss Wind features 29 GE turbines up to 492 feet tall…

A study reveals subsidence issues on the U.S. East Coast, affecting over 2 million people and numerous infrastructures. Areas like Norfolk, Baltimore, and parts of New York City are particularly impacted. The study emphasizes the urgency for policy intervention due to potential risks to densely populated and property-rich regions. Credit: SciTechDaily.comThe East Coast of the U.S. is sinking, impacting major cities and infrastructure, with a significant population at risk. A new study calls for urgent policy action to…

A volcano erupted in southwest Iceland on Sunday, posing an immediate threat to a nearby fishing town that had been evacuated over fears of an eruption, authorities said.Live streams from the site showed fountains of molten rock spewing from fissures in the ground, the bright orange lava flow glowing against the dark sky.The eruption began north of the town of Grindavik, which on Saturday was evacuated for a second time over fears that an eruption was imminent amid a swarm of seismic activity, authorities said.Lava began…

By now, most people are well aware that 2023 was the hottest year on record, coming in at 1.48 C warmer than the pre-industrial average from 1850-1900. This beat out 2016's record of 1.25 C.  In climate terms, an increase in warming by 0.23 C is considerable and climate scientists are still trying to figure out why it happened.Was 2023 just a big blip on the upward trend of global warming? Perhaps. Scientists are trying to tease out all the potential contributors.But one of the things that is inarguably a contributor is…

If you have a fireplace in Southern California, experts are asking you not to use it. A no-burn alert has been extended at least through Wednesday as much of the region sits beneath an atmospheric soup of haze and pollutants.The alert was issued Monday by the South Coast Air Quality Management District for the non-desert parts of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The alert bans any burning of wood or manufactured fire logs made of wax or paper due to poor air quality in the region.Current…

An orca matriarch known as "one of the most prolific female killer whales" on record is presumed dead after nearly a year without a sighting on the West Coast, according to B.C. researchers.T46, also known as Wake, was a transient or Bigg's killer whale thought to have been born in 1966.Jared Towers, a research technician with Fisheries and Oceans Canada and executive director of Bay Cetology, said Wake birthed eight calves during her reproductive years. Her daughters gave birth to 15 grandchildren, and her granddaughters…

The Rocky Mountains conjure up images of grey rugged peaks capped with white. But within the upper reaches of the harsh mountain landscapes, a rosier hue often blooms.Watermelon snow, also known as glacial blood, is caused by algae that turns the snow a startling shade of red.The algae blooms in summer, forming on the snowfields that linger on glaciers, frozen lakes, rugged peaks and icy valleys in the upper reaches of mountain terrain.The darker the snow, the faster it melts — and new research sheds light on the threat…

In an effort to reduce the spread of marine invasive species, Canada ordered lobster pounds to euthanize all egg-bearing female lobsters. But two years after the measure was introduced, some in the business are still unaware of the requirement.The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has banned the long-held practice of releasing egg-bearing or "berried" female lobsters when they are discovered in holding facilities.Instead pounds "must immediately euthanize the lobster," according to licence conditions quietly introduced…

Canada is home to the largest boreal forest in the world, a vast expanse of wilderness rich in biodiversity that stretches from coast to coast.But a major new study examining nearly a half century of logging in Ontario and Quebec warns that clear-cutting has left forests in the provinces severely depleted — and puts woodland caribou at risk.The peer-reviewed research, published in the academic journal Land, found that logging practices between 1976 and 2020 have resulted in the loss of more than 14 million hectares of…