Oceans

Mars’s influence on Earth may be greater than we thought. In fact, the Red Planet, located over 140 million miles away from Earth, could actually be driving giant whirlpools in the deepest parts of our oceans. New research has revealed that changes in the deep-sea currents found on Earth appear to coincide with times when Mars and Earth interacted while orbiting the Sun.The culprit of this influence is something we call resonance. Astronomers describe resonance as a phenomenon where two orbiting bodies – in this…

Ubisoft has announced a new charity drive featuring Skull and Bones where players can help save the oceans in real life by playing the pirate game. The "Waves of Change" in-game charity event is running now through March 31. During the event, Ubisoft is aiming to raise €300,000 ($325,000 USD) for the Oceana charity that is dedicated to ocean conservation, protection, and restoration.All Skull and Bones players, including those using the free trial, are automatically entered into the event. Players can…

The layers you see in this image were once iron-rich and silica-rich sediments that settled on an ancient sea floor 2.7–2.4 billion years ago. Credit: The Australian Museum Iron ore is a big deal in Australia. We are the world's largest iron ore exporter. Iron ore brings in $133 billion annually (2021–2022) and provides 43,000 Australians mining…

As It Happens6:291st images humpback whale sex is between 2 malesWhen biologist Stephanie Stack first saw the photographs of two humpback whales mating in the warm waters of Hawaii, she says her mind was "completely blown.""When I realized that it was two males, it was not what I was expecting," she told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. "I thought, oh my gosh, this is incredible."Stack, chief biologist at the Pacific Whale Foundation in Maui, says this is the first time humpback whale sex has been documented. She…

A sprawling international study of humpback whales in the northern Pacific has found their population has shrunk significantly since 2012 — despite the once-endangered species' remarkable comeback from the brink of extinction. The new research, published in Royal Society Open Science journal on Wednesday, estimated a roughly 20 per cent drop in the cetacean species' numbers over a decade.But despite that, one of the study's nearly 75 listed authors said the findings are not yet cause for alarm.Thomas Doniol-Valcroze is…

The deep ocean is a whole world of alien mystery.Once you start diving deep, below the range through which sunlight can penetrate, whole ecosystems unfold, glimmering, glittering, and feasting in the darkness.Case in point: In a deep environment where methane seeps from below the seafloor into the surrounding water, a shimmering new worm has been discovered.It's been named Pectinereis strickrotti, and it marks the 48th new species discovered thriving around methane seeps off the coast of Costa Rica – an environment once…

Fighting off rising seas without reducing humanity’s carbon emissions is like trying to drain a bathtub without turning off the tap. But increasingly, scientists are sounding the alarm on yet another problem compounding the crisis for coastal cities: Their land is also sinking, a phenomenon known as subsidence. The metaphorical tap is still on—as rapid warming turns more and more polar ice into ocean water—and at the same time the tub is sinking into the floor.An alarming new study in the journal Nature shows how bad the…

Like a nice wool blanket can help a human baby stay warm and healthy, so too does a baby white spruce get protection from a blanket of snow. At the same time, by preventing the chill of winter from reaching the ground, the snow blanket helps thaw permafrost, or frozen soil packed with ancient plant material and ice. Generally, the top layer of this permafrost thaws out in the heat of summer, then freezes again in the winter. But with enough snow on top, the soil doesn't get so cold, which increases the activity of the…

A planet-forming disk with more water than all of Earth’s oceans has been discovered. The disk, which is located in the constellation Taurus, is 450 light-years away from Earth. Astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to zoom in and observe the disk.What they discovered is that the protoplanetary disk around the baby star HL Tauri has more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. In fact, the water found in the disk could fill the Earth’s oceans a total of three times. The…

(a) Annual mean global mean surface temperature above pre-industrial reference temperature (b) Change in annual mean total depth ocean heat content (OHC) relative to 2020–2030 conditions in Control. (c) Difference in vertical OHC between end-of-simulation (2090–2100) conditions and present-day conditions in Control. Credit: Geophysical Research Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2023GL106132 Climate change is heating the oceans,…