“ESA satellites show that a large dome of fresh water has been building up in the ArcticOcean over the last 15 years. A change in wind direction could cause the water to spill into the north Atlantic, cooling Europe.” Quote from the ESA website.
Volcanic activity continues south of El Hierro Island in the Canary Island chain. The cone is growing and is now about 60 meters below the surface. Will it produce a new island?
The Eruptions blog has interesting photos and commentary on the continuing subsea volcanic activity near the Canary Islands in a post titled: “Mixing Magmas at the Ongoing El Hierro Eruption“.
The summit of the volcano off the coast of the Canary Island named El Hierro is still about 70 meters below the surface but evidence of the eruption is obvious.
A volcanic eruption under the sea south of El Hierro Island produces a milky green plume in the marine waters. The plume is most likely caused by volcanic gases, pulverized pumice and sea floor sediments.
Volcanic eruptions are occurring on the seafloor off of the Canary Islands. Discolored water, strong odors and floating volcanic debris are some of the evidence.
British Marine Exploration has identified the British Ship, Mantola, that was torpedoed in 1917 and went down in over one mile of water with 20 tons of silver on board.
“A technology commonly used to map the bottom of the deep ocean can also detect gas seeps in the water column.” Quoted from the University of New Hampshire news release.
“Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are located at an active plate boundary between the North American plate and the northeast corner of the Caribbean plate. Plate movements there have caused large magnitude earthquakes and devastating tsunamis, but scientists have so far failed to explain the deformation of this complex region in a coherent and predictable picture, and this has hampered their ability to assess the seismic and tsunami hazards.” Quoted from the USGS website.
The new issue of Lite Geology by the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources has an interesting article titled: “Ancient Tsunamis from Meteorite Impacts”.
“Earth’s deep oceans may absorb enough heat at times to flatten the rate of global warming for periods of as long as a decade–even in the midst of longer-term warming.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.
“Explorers on NOAA expedition discover chemosynthetic shrimp, tubeworms together for first time at hydrothermal vent, also first live vent tubeworms seen in Atlantic waters.” Quoted from the NOAA news release.
CNN has a photo gallery that includes two photos from the Silfra Fissure in Iceland’s Thingvellier National Park. The Silfra fissure is the pull-apart boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates.
Some members of Congress recommend opening portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the outer continental shelf for oil and natural gas drilling as a way to create jobs and cut the deficit.
Russia and China are very interested in the mineral resources of Antarctica and hope that the current ban on mining will be lifted in 2048. They currently have seafloor exploration projects on ocean ridges that approach the continent.
This NASA video explains how surface ocean currents are driven by wind while deeper currents are driven by density. “Aquarius salinity data, combined with data from other sensors that measure sea level, ocean color, temperature, winds, and rainfall, will give us a much clearer picture of how the ocean works.” Quoted from the NASA video release.
Hurricane Katia is a Category One storm off the east coast of the United States. During the next few days it is expected to track east out into the Atlantic Ocean.
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