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On the first of June, two men and a rabbit set sail from the port of Long Beach, bound for Hawaii, on a raft made of junk. Their cabin is the cockpit of a Cessna 310, white with a blue racing stripe, salvaged from the desert. It floats on a system of handmade pontoons -- 15,000 plastic bottles held together with recycled nets -- propelled by currents and wind. If it sounds dangerous and makeshift, that's the point. The pilots of Junk, as the vessel is called, want to get your attention. They are Dr. Marcus Eriksen, director of research...

Scientists discover new ocean current The North Pacific Gyre Oscillation explains changes in salinity, nutrients and chlorophyll seen in the Northeast Pacific. Credit: Emanuele Di Lorenzo Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered a new climate pattern called the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation. This new pattern explains, for the first time, changes in the water that are important in helping commercial fishermen understand fluctuations in the fish stock. They’re also finding that as the temperature of the Earth is warming, large fluctuations in these factors could help climatologists predict how the oceans will respond in a warmer world....

A comprehensive national ocean governance bill written by U.S. Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, was approved this afternoon by a House subcommittee. The bill’s next stop will be before the full Committee on Natural Resources, the final step before a vote by the full House of Representatives. “I’m excited that this bill has taken the first big step toward passage,” Farr said following the vote. “We have the laws and agencies to safeguard our oceans, but we have no framework for them to function. That means our laws often intersect and our agencies are left with overlapping guidelines. This bill will...

PASADENA, Calif. -- Boosted by the influence of a larger climate event in the Pacific, one of the strongest La Ninas in many years is slowly weakening but continues to blanket the Pacific Ocean near the equator, as shown by new sea-level height data collected by the U.S.-French Jason oceanographic satellite. This La Nina, which has persisted for the past year, is indicated by the blue area in the center of the image along the equator. Blue indicates lower than normal sea level (cold water). The data were gathered in early April. The image also shows that this La Nina...

U.S. firm lays claim to nearly all of what it says will be 400 billion barrels A U.S.-based company that has controversially laid claim to nearly all of the Arctic Ocean's undersea oil said yesterday that new geological data suggest a "potentially vast" petroleum resource of 400 billion barrels. That figure is backed by a respected Canadian researcher who recently signed on as the firm's chief scientific adviser. Las Vegas-based Arctic Oil & Gas has raised eyebrows around the world with its roll-of-the-dice bid to lock up exclusive rights to extract oil and gas from rapidly melting areas of the...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.A 2,000-mile journey through the Ross Sea that ended Thursday has also potentially turned up several new species, including as many as eight new mollusks.

Has An Ocean Circulation Collapse Been Triggered?Geoscientists warn that there can be a considerable delay between the triggering of a collapse of the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and the actual collapse. (Credit: iStockphoto/Emmanuelle Combaud) ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) — Predictions that the 21st century is safe from major circulation changes in the North Atlantic Ocean may not be as comforting as they seem, according to a Penn State researcher. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that it is very unlikely that the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) will collapse in the 21st century. They predict a probability...

In the summer of 2004 I woke up one night, couldn't go back to sleep, rode out to Walmart, and bought a new camera. It was an Olympus C4000Z, only 4MP, but twice as big as the little Kodak I had. The auto focus was super, auto exposure and white balance were excellent, I took 10s of thousands of pics with it. It is still going, I passed it on to a beginner, no point in keeping it in a drawer. These pics are from November, 2004.

Ocean rocket returns to business The firm's Zenit rockets launch from a converted oil platform The Sea Launch company has returned to flight with a mission to loft a telecoms satellite to serve the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. The firm's Zenit 3SL rocket lifted off from its converted oil rig platform stationed in the Pacific at 1149 GMT. The Thuraya 3 satellite separated from the vehicle some 98 minutes later. The flight was the first for Sea Launch since the catastrophic explosion in January 2007 which destroyed a Zenit and its passenger on the pad. Sea Launch is...

Reportedly built to make it easier to drive along the scenic southern coast without the significant possibility of a rock crashing through your windshield.

On December 20, 2007, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its weather prediction for the winter of 2007-2008. In forecasting weather for the continental United States, NOAA examines several factors, but first among them is the state of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which leads to El Niño and La Niña. For the coming winter, NOAA predicted a moderately strong La Niña. During La Niña, sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific are below average, and temperatures in the western tropical Pacific are above average. This pattern is evident in this temperature anomaly image for November...

Ocean Plankton Reducing Greenhouse Gases By Using More Carbon DioxideMicroalgae under the microscope: CO2-feeders in the ocean. (Credit: A. Stuhr/ IFM-GEOMAR) ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2007) — Microscopically tiny marine organisms known as plankton increase their carbon uptake in response to increased concentrations of dissolved CO2 and thereby contribute to a dampening of the greenhouse effect on a global scale. An international group of scientists led by the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany documented this biological mechanism in a natural plankton community for the first time. In simulations of the future ocean, they measured an increased CO2 uptake...

Two Russian deep-sea submersibles made a test dive in polar waters on Sunday ahead of a mission to be the first to reach the seabed under the North Pole, Itar-Tass news agency said. Tass said it took an hour for Mir-1 and Mir-2, each carrying one pilot, to reach the seabed at a depth of 1,311 meters (4,301 feet), 47 nautical miles north of Russia's northernmost archipelago, Franz Josef Land in the Barents Sea. Tass said Mir-1 resurfaced at around 1030 GMT after five hours underwater while Mir-2 spent some more time on the seabed collecting samples. "It was the...

Found: The clearest ocean waters on Earth 12:38 29 June 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic As clear as the clearest lakes on the planet, salty as ocean waters, and roughly the size of the Mediterranean – this, say researchers, is the clearest and most lifeless patch of ocean in the world. And it is in the middle of the Pacific. "Satellite images that track the amount of chlorophyll in ocean waters suggested that this was one of the most life-poor systems on Earth," explains Patrick Raimbault of the University of the Mediterranean, in Marseille, France. In October 2004, Raimbault...

SCITUATE -- Just off the Massachusetts coast is one of the richest marine habitats in the United States, an arc of shallow ocean called Stellwagen Bank, where whales, tuna, cod, and dozens of other species have dined on an underwater smorgasbord for thousands of years. Recognizing the critical importance of Stellwagen Bank in 1992, Congress designated the area a national marine sanctuary, a nature preserve where sea life and habitat would be protected while allowing compatible commercial uses such as fishing and whale watching. But today Stellwagen Bank is a sanctuary in name only, according to conservationists and other observers....

My personal fascination with columnar basalt, waterfalls, waterfalls that enter bodies of water, and waterfalls associated with columnar basalt all converge here in Scotland. Kilt Rock (click for full-size): Kilt Rock (distance) and Mealt Falls And another one:

Sea lions, dolphins and birds are being slowly poisoned off the California coast, despite efforts by volunteers to save them. So far, 50 stricken mammals have been brought ashore alive but nearly all have died or have had to be put down. Whales are also thought to have been affected.

HOBOKEN, N.J. - He's a veteran of long-distance sailing voyages in all kinds of weather. She's never sailed outside the Hudson River. But together, 55-year-old Reid Stowe and his 23-year-old girlfriend, Soanya Ahmad, are embarking on a voyage that they intend to take them three times around the globe and last 1,000 days and nights — nonstop, with no port calls for supplies or a walk on solid ground. They were ready to set sail Saturday aboard his 70-foot, two-masted schooner, named the Schooner Anne, from a Hudson River marina in North Hoboken. "This will be my first time sailing...

The Texas Clipper will not see the ocean floor just yet, but Texas Parks & Wildlife Department officials will celebrate the ship’s history today at the South Padre Island Convention Centre. The 473-foot vessel was scheduled to be sunk 17 miles south of the Brazos Santiago Pass today, but has been rescheduled for late April or early May said Dale Shively, TPWD’s artificial reef program coordinator. During a cleanup on the ship, a tar-like substance called polychlorinated biphenyls was discovered between the steel walls and ceilings. PCB is used as a fire retardant or insulation resistant to heat and...

Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia Richard A. Lovett for National Geographic News February 27, 2007 A giant blob of water the size of the Arctic Ocean has been discovered hundreds of miles beneath eastern Asia, scientists report. Researchers found the underground "ocean" while scanning seismic waves as they passed through Earth's interior. But nobody will be exploring this sea by submarine. The water is locked in moisture-containing rocks 400 to 800 miles (700 to 1,400 kilometers) beneath the surface. "I've gotten all sorts of emails asking if this is the water that burst out in Noah's flood," said the...

Pristine seascapeA previously unexplored section of Antarctic sea floor lured marine scientists and their vessel Polarstern to the frozen continent for a voyage of exploration over Christmas and New Year.The trip yielded, said researchers, a wealth of useful information and some undiscovered species.(Image: G Chapelle, IPF/ Alfred Wegener Institute) Unexpected giantAmong the new species was this giant amphipod, a type of crustacean, which researchers caught in baited traps. About 10cm (four inches) long, it is one of the biggest amphipods found in the region.(Image: C d'Udekem, Royal Belgium Institute for Natural Sciences) Key creatureAlready well known to science is...

Why So Dry? Ocean temperatures alone don't explain droughts Patrick L. Barry The western United States continues to struggle with the worst dry spell since the 1930s, and an international report on climate change predicts more and worse droughts to come (see "From Bad to Worse," in this week's issue). As scientists work to understand what triggers droughts, a new finding suggests that the causes may be more complex than many have supposed. DUNE DATA. Beneath these grassy hills of Nebraska lie the remains of ancient sand dunes, remnants from centuries-long droughts that have stricken this area several times in...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - Using fire scars on nearly 5,000 tree stumps dating back 450 years, scientists have found that extended periods of major wildfires in the West occurred when the North Atlantic Ocean was going through periodic warming. With the North Atlantic at the start of a recurring warming period that typically lasts 20 to 60 years, the West could be in for an extended period of multiple fires on the scale of those seen in 2002 and 2006, said Thomas W. Swetnam. He's the director of the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research at the University of Arizona and...

Animals seem to have found a way to make a living just about everywhere," said Jesse Ausubel of the Sloan Foundation, discussing the findings of year six of the census of marine life. Added Ron O'Dor, a senior scientist with the census: "We can't find anyplace where we can't find anything new." This year's update, released Sunday, is part of a study of life in the oceans that is scheduled for final publication in 2010. The census is an international effort supported by governments, divisions of the United Nations and private conservation organizations. About 2,000 researchers from 80 countries are...

Southern Ocean Could Slow Global Warming The Southern Ocean may slow the rate of global warming by absorbing significantly more heat and carbon dioxide than previously thought, according to new research. This image shows the oceans and continents that surround Antarctica. The tip of South America is on the upper left, the tip of Africa is at the upper right and Australia is at the bottom right. The ocean colors indicate temperature, with the darkest blue indicating the coldest water. The black arrows show the direction the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current take as they swirl...

That the Gulf Stream is responsible for Europe's mild winters is widely known and accepted, but...it is nothing more than the earth-science equivalent of an urban legend... The countries of northern Europe do indeed have curiously mild climates...why do so many people credit the Gulf Stream? Like many other myths, this one rests on a strand of truth. The Gulf Stream carries with it considerable heat when it flows out from the Gulf of Mexico and then north along the East Coast before departing U.S. waters at Cape Hatteras and heading northeast toward Europe. All along the way, it warms...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - An ocean dead zone off Oregon that killed fish, crabs and sea worms in an area bigger than Rhode Island last summer lasted nearly three times longer than any of its predecessors before dissipating with autumn's change in the weather, scientists said Monday. This year's dead zone off Oregon ran for 17 weeks, compared to the previous high of six weeks in 2004, and saw oxygen readings near zero that left the ocean bottom littered with dead crabs, sea stars and sea anemones. This is the fifth straight year the dead zone returned. It covered 70...

Several days ago, the 'Maria S Merian' returned from her second Arctic expedition with data confirming trends of Arctic warming. "Compared to last summer, the water that flows from the Norwegian Sea to the Arctic has been an average 0.8 degrees Celsius warmer this summer," says expedition leader Dr Ursula Schauer of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. "This is in addition to the last two years already having been warmer than the previous 20 from which we have regular measurements. Over the Yermak Plateau, an oceanic ridge, the oceanographers documented water of more than four degrees...

Mystery of the Missing Heat: Upper ocean has cooled slightly in recent years, despite warming climate Sid Perkins Between 2003 and 2005, the top layers of the world's oceans cooled slightly, but scientists aren't sure where the heat went. According to climate data gathered worldwide, 2003, 2004, and 2005 are three of the five warmest years since reliable record keeping of global air temperatures began more than a century ago. However, oceanographic surveys suggest that on average, the upper 750 meters of the world's ice-free oceans cooled about 0.03°C during that 3-year period. This cooling reverses an oceanic-warming trend observed...

A new analysis of 50 years of changes in freshwater inputs to the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic may help shed light on what's behind the recently observed freshening of the North Atlantic Ocean. In a report, published in the August 25, 2006 issue of the journal, Science, MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) senior scientist Bruce J. Peterson and his colleagues describe a first-of-its-kind effort to create a big-picture view of hydrologic trends in the Arctic. Their analysis reveals that freshwater increases from Arctic Ocean sources appear to be highly linked to a fresher North Atlantic. "The high-latitude freshwater cycle is...

A network of reserves to protect California's rich array of marine wildlife moved closer to becoming a reality on Tuesday after a state panel selected a plan to put large swaths of coastal waters off-limits to fishing. The Fish and Game Commission voted at a packed meeting in Monterey to ban both commercial and recreational fishing across more than 200 square miles between Santa Barbara and Half Moon Bay, just south of San Francisco. The plan still must undergo a final environmental review before it goes into effect. The new protected areas likely would not become official until at least...

B.C. woman clung to selfless hero in icy sea until he 'just froze to death' Adrift in the icy Bering Sea, Tom Grissom took hold of the precious life-ring that could have saved him -- and handed it off to save a friend instead. The decision, described by friends as typical of his character and by coast guard officials as heroic, cost Grissom his life Sunday night. The ring that Grissom handed to Amanda Delisle kept her afloat for an hour in the 11 C water after the two were tossed, along with two co-workers, into the frigid waters off...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) -- Gas escaping from the ocean floor may provide some answers to understanding historical global warming cycles and provide information on current climate changes, according to a team of scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The findings are reported in the July 20 on-line version of the scientific journal, Global Biogeochemical Cycles. Remarkable and unexpected support for this idea occurred when divers and scientists from UC Santa Barbara observed and videotaped a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor. It happened in an area of gas and oil seepage coming out of small volcanoes...

The crack is 8m-wide in places The largest tear in the Earth's crust seen in decades, if not centuries, could carve out a new ocean in Africa, according to satellite data. Geologists say a crack that opened up last year may eventually reach the Red Sea, isolating much of Ethiopia and Eritrea from the rest of Africa. The 60km-long rift was initially sparked by an earthquake in September. Follow-up observations reported in the journal Nature suggest the split is growing at an unprecedented rate. See the rift in detail We think if these processes continue, a new ocean will...

BOULDER, Colorado, June 26, 2006 (ENS) - Global warming created about half the extra warmth in the waters of the tropical North Atlantic that stimulated hurricane formation in 2005, while natural cycles were a minor factor, a new study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research demonstrates. The research by world leading climate scientists contradicts recent claims that natural cycles are responsible for the increase in Atlantic hurricane activity since 1995 and adds support to the theory that hurricane seasons will become more active as global temperatures rise. While researchers agree that the warming waters fueled hurricane intensity, they have...

by Edward Hudgins What do Britain's astronomer royal Martin Rees and Australian environmentalist David Leary of Macquarie University have in common? Both are concerned that someone might be making profits on outer and inner space frontiers where there are no government regulators or bureaucrats to be found. In 2002 Rees regretted the possibility that private companies might get to Mars before governments do and make it into another Wild West. Today Leary laments that six companies are selling products derived from the deep ocean and that eight other companies are moving in to make bucks at the bottom of the...

Magnitude 8.1 earthquake near Island of Tonga in South Pacific more to follow

For the second year in a row, the cloak of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean failed to grow to its normal winter expanse, scientists said yesterday. The finding led some climate experts to predict a record expansion of open water this summer. "We keep looking for the ice to recover, but it isn't," said Mark C. Serreze, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., which monitors the region using satellites. "Unless conditions turn unusually cold this spring and summer, we may be looking at sea ice losses in 2006 that will rival...

A controversial proposal to build what would be the largest desalination plant in the nation along the Huntington Beach coastline was approved early today after months of raucous debate. The Huntington Beach City Council voted 4 to 3 to approve permits for Poseidon Resources Corp. to build a $250-million desalination facility next to the AES power station on Pacific Coast Highway at the city's southern edge. The desalination plant would produce as much as 50 million gallons of fresh water daily by tapping ocean water already pumped into the power station to cool the huge electrical facility. The plant still...

Greenland ice swells ocean rise By Paul Rincon BBC News science reporter, St Louis Kangerdlussuaq Glacier "drains" about 4% of the ice sheet Greenland's glaciers are sliding towards the sea much faster than previously believed, scientists have told a conference in St Louis, US. It was thought the entire Greenland ice sheet could melt in about 1,000 years, but the latest evidence suggests that could happen much sooner. It implies that sea levels will rise a great deal faster as well. Details of the study, by Nasa and University of Kansas researchers, are also reported in the journal Science. The...

Under Ocean Volcanoes Warming Water (Global Warming) (snips) A few reports on this ongoing phenomenon: Underwater Volcanoes Erupting Simultaneously All Over the World - March 14, 2005 - Hundreds of underwater volcanoes are erupting all over the world, especially around the Ring of Fire, reports the India Daily. Underwater volcanoes are erupting in Australia, Greece, New Zealand and many other countries including the American Northwest, which is experiencing an unprecedented level of underwater volcanism. Andaman Nicobar Island is experiencing underwater volcanism in both the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Tectonic movements have gone up by several folds in...

Ancient clues to ocean currents By Jonathan Amos BBC News science reporter, San Francisco Foam marks points where samples have been extracted from the core. (Image: Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) The close link between temperatures in the North Atlantic and the strength of ocean circulation is underlined by a new analysis of sea-floor sediments. The sediments were drilled from Blake Outer Ridge off the US east coast. They contain traces of naturally occurring radioactive atoms in ratios that are a giveaway for the speed of ocean waters going back 60,000 years. The work by a team from the...

Absent any climate policy, scientists have found a 70 percent chance of shutting down the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean over the next 200 years, with a 45 percent probability of this occurring in this century. The likelihood decreases with mitigation, but even the most rigorous immediate climate policy would still leave a 25 percent chance of a thermohaline collapse. "This is a dangerous, human-induced climate change," said Michael Schlesinger, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "The shutdown of the thermohaline circulation has been characterized as a high-consequence, low-probability event. Our analysis,...

Comoros volcano eruption pollutes water NAIROBI (Reuters) - Water supplies to more than 100,000 people in the Indian Ocean Comoros islands have been contaminated by the eruption of one of the world's largest active volcanoes, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Mount Karthala sent clouds of ash and sparks flying late on Thursday, leaving the capital Moroni and other villages on the main island of Grande Comore covered in gray. "Concerns exist regarding the availability of potable water in the areas exposed to smoke and ashes," said a report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs...

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 16:48:00 UTC As the clock ticks down, the boats get closer and closer to Cape Town – just 365 miles for the leader - and nerves start jangling. To lose a place now; worse, to lose a rig or even a sail, could ruin your whole day...

OCEANS levels are rising faster than previously thought, research has found. Scientists had previously wondered why the sea level rise did not seem to be accelerating, as their computer models predicted under climate change. But the Greenhouse 2005 conference will be told today that an acceleration has been detected by looking at a longer record of sea levels, between 1870 and 2004. The study, by the CSIRO's John Church and Neil White, is the first time researchers have reconstructed the sea level rise for such a long period. Over that time, the sea has risen almost 20 centimetres, with the...

With its Gothic abbey soaring 170 metres above a mostly flat, nondescript Normandy landscape, Mont-Saint-Michel is both a feat of human will and a quirk of nature, planted in a tidal system that each day brings the sea surging in as fast as a trotting horse. But Mont-Saint-Michel is no longer much of an island. Since the 19th century, a causeway from the mainland has been disrupting the currents that flush away silt, and about 25 hectares of salt marsh are gaining on the islet annually. Now, as much of the world worries how to stop sea levels from rising,...

"...the treaty establishes for the first time a commercial venture called the "Enterprise" that will charge $250,000 for the right to mine the ocean sea beds. Since this a U.N. treaty, proceeds will go to the U.N."

Scientists aboard the Scripps research vessel Roger Revelle have solved a 45-year-old geological mystery. In 1960, Scripps oceanographer Dale Krause reported the discovery of extraordinary deep-sea volcanic rocks in waters off Mexico, near Guadalupe Island, approximately 200 miles south of San Diego. When brought to the surface, the rocks spontaneously exploded "with a sharp snapping sound," according to Krause. Since then, only a few other sites, mostly along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, have been reported with similar "popping rocks." An attempt by the late Scripps Professor Harmon Craig to locate the site in 1984 proved unsuccessful, largely because the location of...

A European satellite designed to measure how fast the polar ice caps are melting has crashed into the Arctic Ocean after its launch failed. The European Space Agency's CryoSat was on board a rocket launched from a cosmodrome in northern Russia but it failed to establish communication at the scheduled time. A Russian space official says the satellite is believed to have fallen into the Lincoln Sea near the North Pole, where the second rocket stage was supposed to fall. The $224 million satellite was to have scanned the thickness of polar ice sheets and floating sea ice with unprecedented...