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Atmospheric scientists have reported a new and potentially important mechanism by which chemical emissions from ocean phytoplankton may influence the formation of clouds that reflect sunlight away from our planet. This intimate connection between life and the environment of Earth could have profound implications for the future of our planet's global ecosystem. Discovery of the new link between clouds and the biosphere grew out of efforts to explain increased cloud cover observed over an area of the Southern Ocean where a large bloom of phytoplankton was occurring. Based on satellite data, the researchers hypothesized that airborne particles produced by oxidation...

Direct Link Discovered Between Agricultural Runoff And Algal Blooms In SeaScientists have found the first direct evidence linking large-scale coastal farming to massive blooms of marine algae that are potentially harmful to ocean life and fisheries. Researchers from Stanford University's School of Earth Sciences made the discovery by analyzing satellite images of Mexico's Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf of California - a narrow, 700-mile-long stretch of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Mexican mainland from the Baja California Peninsula. Immortalized in the 1941 book Sea of Cortez, by writer John Steinbeck and marine biologist Edward Ricketts, the...

Link post: Geology Picture of the Week, February 2-8, 2003

A combined oceanographic and geologic image today. Click the image below to see the larger image, which is only 515 MB. I was struck both by the phenomenon caught by the satellite and also the amazing colors of the Namibian landscape. See the link at the bottom for another Namibian feature of note, which is north of the area seen in this image. Web page: Sulfur plume off Namibia Brandberg Massif The Brandberg Massif is a highly- visible geologic feature that is familar to astronauts.

Breakaway Bergs Disrupt Arctic Ecosystem WASHINGTON, DC, May 9, 2002 (ENS) - Another large iceberg has newly calved from the Ross Ice Shelf, the National Ice Center has confirmed. Iceberg C-18 is the latest in a series of bergs to break away from the warming Antarctic ice mass. National Ice Center analyst Judy Shaffier spotted the new iceberg Sunday while performing a weekly satellite image analysis of the Ross Sea using an image from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. The Ross Ice Shelf is a large sheet of glacial ice and snow extending from the Antarctic mainland into the...