Seawater

After successful pilot programs, UCLA has partnered with Singapore’s national water agency and others to build the world’s largest ocean-based carbon dioxide removal plant capable of removing 3,650 metric tons (8,046,873 lb) of the greenhouse gas per year while producing 105 metric tons (231,000 lb) of carbon-negative hydrogen.According to the World Bank, average global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2020 were 4.3 metric tons (9,500 lb) per capita. With this figure in mind, researchers from the UCLA Samueli School of…

NASA recently shared a breathtaking image of Earth taken from the International Space Station (ISS), revealing an incredible sight of frozen seawater. Captured on February 3, 2024, the image showcases a stunning display of sea ice swirls along the coast of Labrador in eastern Canada.In a witty caption, NASA wrote, “This soft serve machine is not broken,” referring to the resemblance of the frozen seawater swirls to soft serve ice cream. The threads of sea ice trace ocean currents, forming intricate patterns that are…

Israel’s military has begun injecting “high-flow” seawater into Hamas-built tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip as part of its attempt to “neutralize terrorist infrastructures.”On 30 January, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that the plan to flood tunnels under the Gaza Strip, a strategy that has been the subject of rumours since December, is being implemented at a number of undisclosed locations. The IDF’s statement added that the move was a “significant engineering and technological breakthrough” and that locations…

A new study reveals an efficient method for extracting uranium ions from seawater using a specially designed electrode material. This approach offers a sustainable alternative to traditional uranium mining, potentially turning the oceans into vast sources of nuclear fuel.Most of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans, which are teeming with a wide variety of life. Interestingly, these vast bodies of water also contain a dilute distribution of uranium ions. Extracting these ions could potentially offer a renewable source…

A startup developing technology to take planet-heating carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere just signed a deal with a state-owned water utility in South Korea to build a pilot project that combines the new climate tech with seawater desalination. The first-of-its kind collaboration is intended to clean up some of the pollution from a giant hub for petrochemical production nearby, on top of supplying fresh water to heavy industries in the area.Depending on how you look at it, partnerships like this could be an innovative…

January 17, 20243 min readThe Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano erupted in January 2022 with the force of an atomic weapon. The disaster has launched dozens of new studies about global warmingBy John Fialka & E&E NewsTonga. 15th Jan, 2022. Still capture of a video released to the media by NASA on Jan. 15, 2022 of one of the most potent volcanic eruptions in decades has obliterated a small, uninhabited South Pacific island known as Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai. CLIMATEWIRE | Scientists around the world are exploring…

About 150 kilometers north of the Antarctic Peninsula lie the South Shetland Islands, a cluster of more than a dozen islands that harbor glaciers, volcanoes, and a tundra ecosystem with penguins and seals. On the southwestern side of King George Island, glacial meltwater meets salty seawater in a narrow, little-explored fjord known as Marian Cove. The flow of seawater into and out of fjords like Marian Cove plays a critical role in sustaining…

Scientists have employed artificial intelligence to analyze over a billion waves spanning 700 years, leading to a groundbreaking formula for predicting rogue waves. This study, which transforms vast ocean data into an equation for rogue wave probability, challenges previous theories and offers significant implications for maritime safety. The research’s accessibility and AI’s role in enhancing human understanding mark a significant advancement in the field. Credit: SciTechDaily.comUtilizing seven centuries of oceanic wave…

A team of scientists from China's Northeast Normal University has developed an electrochemical method for extracting uranium from ordinary seawater that has the potential to supply humanity with an effectively unlimited energy source.By current estimates, there are about 8 million tonnes of known reserves of uranium on land. That's enough to fuel the world's nuclear reactors for centuries based on current technology, but in the sea there is an estimated 4.5 billion tonnes in the form of dissolved uranyl ions. If we could…

A novel nanodevice developed by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign team can generate electricity from the salinity differences between seawater and freshwater, showing potential for scalable power generation and applications in various fields.The world’s coastlines harbor a largely untapped energy source: the salinity difference between seawater and freshwater. A new nanodevice can harness this difference to generate power.A team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has reported a design…