Free Republic

Over two centuries ago, Pierre-Simon Laplace, a French physicist and mathematician, noticed that the Moon's equatorial bulge is about 20 times larger than expected. Now, researchers are trying to find out why. Although the Moon looks quite spherical from the ground, it is flatter at its poles and wider at its equator, a trait known as an equatorial bulge. This characteristic is common; it's usually caused by an object's rotation around its axis. However, it's been noted that the Moon's bulge is about 20 times larger than it should be given its rotational rate of once per month... researchers at...

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! It's that level of panic climate change alarmists like professionally monotone former Vice President Al Gore want everyone to rise to. But when people like Gore are called out on their rhetorical hot garbage, it they just tend to double down on their stance. Gore was speaking at a town hall event, moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, to talk about climate change. Go figure. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that CNN would host Gore for a town hall days after his new documentary, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” saw a...

When we look back on this period of history, we’ll say climate change was one of the greatest hoaxes. Politician-turned-environmental activist, Al Gore has become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams (and intelligence) thanks to pushing the “big lie.” A new study from NASA confirms sea levels are falling — not rising. iceagenow.info reports: NASA satellite sea level observations for the past 24 years show that – on average – sea levels have been rising 3.4 millimeters per year. That’s 0.134 inches, about the thickness of a dime and a nickel stacked together, per year. As I said, that’s the average....

A human with a purpose is a beautiful thing. A group of highly trained combat veterans with a mission is truly astounding. Enter Force Blue, a nonprofit that brings together ex-Marines and special operations veterans to help save the oceans from environmental destruction. “Basically what we’re doing is we’re taking men and women trained to destroy stuff underwater and re-teaching them instead how to preserve it, and through the process, perhaps restore themselves as well,” said co-founder and executive director Jim Ritterhoff, in a video. The idea for Force Blue grew out of a dive trip that Ritterhoff and former...

The world's oceans close to being starved of oxygen - and even that could lead to mass sea life extinction which could last a million years. University of Exeter scientists fear the modern ocean is 'on the edge of anoxia' - when the oceans are depleted of oxygen. [snip] Lead researcher PhD student Sarah Baker said it was now 'critical' for modern humans to limit carbon emissions to prevent this.

Trudeau is the new owner of the Arctic Snow Globe; a dupe under the continuing influence of Obama It was the wisdom and majesty of God Almighty that gave us the treasures of Earth’s oceans. And in their incomparable greed and self-vested power, it was the unelected bureaucrats at the United Nations who seized them when no one but the politicians of the day were looking. It is an irrefutable truth that the UN stole God’s gift to mankind before sanctimoniously calling it the Law of the Sea Treaty.

An artist's impression of the planet Proxima b, orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, released by the European Southern Observatory on August 24, 2016 A rocky planet discovered in the "habitable" zone of the star nearest our Sun may be covered with oceans, researchers at France's CNRS research institute said Thursday. A team including CNRS astrophysicists have calculated the size and surface properties of the planet dubbed Proxima b, and concluded it may be an "ocean planet" similar to Earth. Scientists announced Proxima b's discovery in August, and said it may be the first exoplanet—planet outside our Solar System—to...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2016 September 11 All the Water on Planet Earth Illustration Credit & Copyright: Jack Cook, Adam Nieman, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Howard Perlman, USGS Explanation: How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius. The featured illustration shows what would happen if all of the...

KT Boundary and Iridium Ever dreamt of hiking over the landscape and finding a mineral vein rich with ores, perhaps even silver or gold glittering in the sunshine, like in the Hand of Faith vein in Australia? How about joining the gold rush fever—without trekking up the Chilkoot Pass as thousands of prospectors did well over 100 years ago? The chances of finding a “mother lode” are slim, even when trying hard. They are similar to winning the jackpot in a big lottery. But don’t give up just yet; there is a new “horizon” for your exploration activity—the new frontiers...

Marine researchers have discovered a strange alien-like creature while exploring the underwater world found in the deepest ocean trench on Earth. A team of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) spotted the hydromedusa jellyfish during an expedition to the Mariana Trench in the Pacific. The sea creature was captured on film after it swam close to the surface of the ocean near the agency's research ship, the "Okeanos Explorer." Based on the team's observations, this new jellyfish species shares similar features with those of Crossota genus, which are known to spend the majority of their existence gliding...

The oceans are rising faster than at any point in the last 28 centuries, and human emissions of greenhouse gases are primarily responsible, scientists reported Monday. They added that the flooding that is starting to make life miserable in many coastal towns - like Miami Beach; Norfolk, Va.; and Charleston, S.C. - was largely a consequence of those emissions, and that it is likely to grow worse in coming years. The ocean could rise as much as three or four feet by 2100, as ocean water expands and the great ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica begin to collapse. Experts...

Guest Post by Willis EschenbachI’ve spent a good chunk of my life around, on, and under the ocean. I worked seasonally for many years as a commercial fisherman off of the western coast of the US. I’ve frozen off my begonias setting nets in driving sleet up in the Bering Sea. I’m also a blue-water sailor with a Pacific crossing under my belt, and a surfer, and both a sport and a commercial diver.Plus I’m eternally curious, so I have read about and studied the ocean all my life.Based on both my experience and my knowledge, I have written...

Man-made heat put into the world's oceans has DOUBLED since 1997: Energy absorbed equivalent to Hiroshima bomb being exploded every second for 75 years The amount of man-made heat energy absorbed by the seas has doubled since 1997, a new study has revealed. Scientists have long known that more than 90 percent of the heat energy from man-made global warming goes into the world's oceans instead of the ground. Researchers have now tracked how much man-made heat has been buried in the oceans in the past 150 years.

It is, for our home planet, an extremely warm year. Indeed, last week we learned from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the first eight months of 2015 were the hottest such stretch yet recorded for the globe’s surface land and oceans, based on temperature records going back to 1880. It’s just the latest evidence that we are, indeed, on course for a record-breaking warm year in 2015. Yet, if you look closely, there’s one part of the planet that is bucking the trend. In the North Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland and Iceland, the ocean surface has seen...

“Is the number of volcanic eruptions worldwide increasing? “Yes,” answers Michael Snyder in this startling article.“ During the 20th century, there were a total of 3,542 volcanic eruptions globally. That works out to approximately 35 eruptions per year. That may sound like a lot, but according to Volcano Discovery there are 36 volcanoes erupting around the world right now. In other words, the number of volcanoes erupting as you read this article is greater than the 20th century’s yearly average.“ And all of this is part of a larger trend. In 2013, we witnessed the most volcanic eruptions worldwide that...

<p>AP) -- Scientists say they have identified an ocean sponge living in the darkness of the deep sea that grows thin glass fibers capable of transmitting light better than industrial fiber optic cables used for telecommunication.</p> <p>The natural glass fibers also are much more flexible than manufactured fiber optic cable that can crack if bent too far.</p>

The creatures hail from a rarely before explored region of the ocean's water column.Shallow waters can be easily explored by divers and the deep sea is now starting to be scanned by robotic submersibles. But there’s an in between part of the ocean where its too dark for divers to see and too shallow for bots to bother with. The area 150 to 500 feet deep is called the Twilight Zone, at the California Academy of Sciences. And recent expedition to those mysterious waters just off the coast of the Philippines revealed more than 100 new species, reports Grace Singer...

When lifeguards at a popular Southern California surfing spot decided to use a high-tech drone to keep swimmers safe from shark attacks, they got a chilling eyeful. The drone flies up about a 100 feet, looks down at a wide area and when they see shadows they can focus on them. In a matter of minutes the lifeguards can see just how many sharks may be lurking just yards from the shoreline. “This morning, we launched it and 10 minutes later, we knew there were 10 to 12 sharks in the Surfside [Beach] area,” said Chief Joe Bailey, a Seal...

By June 16, 2014 (NASA) (Source: NASA) In the remote and forested terrain of Juina in western Brazil, an ugly rock with an uglier name surfaced months ago inside a diamond mine. It was a tiny green crystal, all scars and bumps. It “literally look[ed] like [it had] been to hell and back,” one scientist said in March. But despite the provenance, the ringwoodite stone wasn’t scorched — it was, in fact, sopping wet. Providing an unparalleled glimpse into the our planet’s innards, the stone rode a violent volcanic eruption to the surface from 325 miles inside the Earth’s mantle....

The one common element in recent weather has been oddness. The West Coast has been warm and parched; the East Coast has been cold and snowed under. Fish are swimming into new waters, and hungry seals are washing up on California beaches. A long-lived patch of warm water off the West Coast, about 1 to 4 degrees Celsius (2 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal, is part of what’s wreaking much of this mayhem, according to two University of Washington papers to appear in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. “In the fall of 2013 and...