Free Republic

You know jet streams as fast-flowing air currents in the atmosphere that can help predict temperature and help planes fly faster. According to data sent back by a trio of ESA satellites called Swarm, though, there's also a jet stream deep beneath our planet's surface, and it's made of molten iron. A team of European scientists have discovered the jet stream in the Earth's outer core that's located 1,900 miles underneath its crust. It moves at 25 miles per year, three times faster than the speed of the other layers in the outer core and a thousand times faster than...

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...

The story of millions of Lego pieces washing up on beaches attracted huge interest when first told by the Magazine. The list of places where the toys have been spotted is still growing. Beachcomber Tracey Williams has been picking up Lego along the Cornish coastline ever since a container spill dumped millions of the toy pieces into the sea in 1997. Since the curious tale was reported by the Magazine, dozens of people have contacted Williams to say they, too, have found parts of the much-loved toy scattered on shores. Snip Most of the people who've contacted her found Lego...

Watch in awe as the world's eddying ocean currents swirl in a Van Gogh-esque grandeur. Click here to watch the three minute "Perpetual Ocean" video on YouTubeA stunning new animated video produced by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Earth showcases the flow of the world's ocean currents swirling in a captivating splendor. The video, titled "Perpetual Ocean," takes an astronaut's view, as if the viewer is in a waltz-like dance orbiting around the Earth. The flow of the ocean currents in the presentation are derived from real data collected over two years...

A short lesson in civics, with a second lesson archived below it. Very brief, very succint-and should be totally unneccessary !

Saltier North Atlantic should give currents a boost 13:12 23 August 2007 NewScientist.com news service Catherine Brahic The surface waters of the North Atlantic are getting saltier, suggests a new study of records spanning over 50 years. And this might actually be good news for the effects of climate change on global ocean currents in the short-term, say the study's researchers. This is because saltier waters in the upper levels of the North Atlantic ocean may mean that the global ocean conveyor belt – the vital piece of planetary plumbing which some scientists fear may slow down because of global...

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...

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...

Slowdown in ocean currents may bring ice age to Britain By Roger Highfield Science Editor (Filed: 16/04/2004) A crucial "cog" in the circulation of the North Atlantic is slowing down, which could signal a major upheaval in the climate of Britain, according to a study published today. The report in Science comes as Hollywood prepares to release a film on the same theme, The Day After Tomorrow, in which snowstorms batter New Delhi and tornadoes strike Los Angeles after global warming disrupts ocean circulation patterns. It seems logical that a gradual build-up of greenhouse gases will lead to an equally...