ocean

Chief Scientist Frieder Klein and Deep Rover Pilot Alan Scot exploring a submerged carbonate platform. Credit: Novus Select Studying a rock is like reading a book. The rock has a story to tell, says Frieder Klein, an associate scientist in the Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The rocks…

Recent studies reveal a significant increase in marine heatwaves in the Arctic Ocean, with temperatures rising above average and thinning ice leading to a new Arctic phase. Human-induced greenhouse gases are a major contributing factor, threatening the region’s ecosystem. Credit: SciTechDaily.comMarine heatwaves will become a regular occurrence in the Arctic in the near future and are a product of higher anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions – as shown in a study just released by Dr. Armineh Barkhordarian from…

Last year a concerning study suggested one of Earth's major ocean currents is racing towards collapse. Unfortunately, new data now backs that up."The temperature, sea level and precipitation changes will severely affect society, and the climate shifts are unstoppable on human time scales," the authors of the latest study warn in an article for The Conversation.That's a terrifying prospect, and one of the most important parts of the new study is an early warning system, identified by Utrecht University oceanographer René…

Mimas is the smallest and innermost of Saturn’s major moons. Its newly discovered young ocean opens new avenues for exploring life’s potential beyond Earth. Credit: Frédéric Durillon, Animea Studio | Observatoire de Paris – PSL, IMCCEResearchers have discovered a global ocean of liquid water beneath the surface of Mimas, one of Saturn’s smallest moons. This discovery, made possible by data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, highlights Mimas as a crucial site for studying the origins of life, providing insights into ocean…

NASA scientists are just getting started in their analysis of fragments brought back from the Bennu asteroid, and the early indications are that the material it contains originated from an ancient ocean world.That assumption is based on the phosphate crust detected on the asteroid. The calcium and magnesium-rich phosphate mineral has never been seen before on meteorites – those small space rocks that make it through our atmosphere and down to Earth.The mineral's chemistry bears an eerie resemblance to that found in vapor…

When B.C. marine scientist Anna Hall encountered a very lost loggerhead turtle in waters near Victoria over the weekend, she knew it faced a grim fate at sea."The turtle would not have survived," said Hall, principal scientist at consulting group Sea View Marine Sciences."Had the turtle stayed in the ocean, either it would have died due to hypothermia, or it would have been hit by a boat. It was just moving so, so slowly."Hall was the first marine biologist to respond Sunday after a resident near Pedder Bay between…

The world just experienced its hottest January on record, but that wasn't the only new record it set, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Thursday.For the first time, the global temperature pushed past the internationally agreed upon warming threshold for an entire 12-month period, with February 2023 to January 2024, running 1.52 C, according to C3S.Last month surpassed the previous warmest January, which occurred in 2020, in C3S's records going back to 1950.Every month since June has been…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain An abrupt shutdown of Atlantic Ocean currents that could put large parts of Europe in a deep freeze is looking a bit more likely and closer than before as a new complex computer simulation finds a "cliff-like" tipping point looming in the future. A long-worried nightmare scenario, triggered by Greenland's ice sheet…

On a typically sunny day in Los Angeles last June, Henrik Fisker choked up as he handed over his company’s first all-electric SUVs in the United States. “I’m really kind of emotional about it, because we’ve been waiting two and a half years for this, and everyone here has done a tremendous job,” the founder and CEO said. The day had started on a celebratory note. Fisker, donning a graphic tee depicting the electric Ocean SUV, hugged and posed for photos with the company’s first customers — at one point even signing…

The large size variation among cetacean species, including dolphins, whales, and porpoises, is largely explained by the activity of specific gene regions, according to a recent study by scientists from Brazil's University of Campinas Institute of Biology (IB-UNICAMP).Blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus), for example, can grow up to a giant 30 meters (98 feet) long while the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) usually doesn't get longer than 3.5 meters. Not only does the new research help explain these massive size…