• Current News
• Africa
• Alabama
• Alaska
• Antarctic
• Archaeology
• Arctic
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Asia
• Astronomy
• Atlantic
• Australia and Pacific
• California
• Canada
• Caves and Karst
• Central America & Mexico
• Coastal Geology
• Colorado
• Contamination
• Delaware
• Diamonds
• Dinosaurs
• Earthquakes
• Energy
• Engineering Geology
• Environment
• Europe
• Floods
• Florida
• Fossils
• Gemstones
• Geologist Career
• Geology for Kids
• Georgia
• Geothermal
• Glaciers
• Global Warming
• Gold
• GPS and GIS
• Great Websites
• Ground Water
• Hawaii
• Historical Geology
• Hurricanes and Cyclones
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Interesting
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Landslides
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maps
• Mars
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Metals
• Meteorology
• Meteors and Meteorites
• Michigan
• Minerals
• Mining
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Natural Hazards
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Oceanography
• Ohio
• Oil and Gas
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Plate Tectonics
• Satellite Images
• South America
• South Dakota
• Space
• Subsidence
• Teaching Science
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Tornadoes
• Tsunami
• United States
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Volcanoes
• Washington
• Water
• West Virginia
• Wildfire
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Geology News
Oceanography Current Events

National Geographic has an article that explores how the warming of global climates appears to be linked to a decline in dissolved oxygen levels in world oceans. This leads to the expansion of hypoxic zones - areas where oxygen levels are so low that fish and other organisms find it difficult to thrive.

Two articles, one recent and one from about a year ago, describe the capture and explain the autopsy plan for the world’s largest squid. It weighs nearly 1/2 ton and was over 30 feet long. It died shortly after capture but has been stored in near-frozen salt water for the past year in New Zealand.

Google launched an advisory group consisting mainly of oceanographers to discuss creating a 3D map of the oceans. Some think that this could be an underwater version of “Google Earth”. A program like that could stimulate a lot of new interest in oceanography.

NASA Image

An archive of NASA news releases, image galleries and articles on a variety of topics related to planetary geology, earth observation, global climate change, monitoring volcanoes, looking beyond our solar system, monitoring the oceans and more. A few of the most popular ones are:

• Monitoring Volcanoes from Space
• Photograph of Avalanches on Mars
• Glacial Sediments Add to Louisiana Coastal Subsidence
• Satellite Images of Marine Phytoplankton Blooms
• Sahara Dust Storms Lower Sea Surface Temperatures
• Satellite Measures Pollution From East Asia to North America

By studying the landscape around the Chesapeake, NASA spacecraft such as Landsat, Terra and Aqua are helping land managers figure out how to battle the harmful pollutants that have added to the destruction of the bay’s once legendary productivity. Many of these harmful pollutants come from the Chesapeake Bay’s watershed, an area of about 64,000 square miles that covers parts of six states.

Find out what’s going on in the world’s oceans these days…from the Atlantis Massif to a new microbe species. Oceanus Magazine has four article shorts that will pique your curiosity.

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has a slide show titled: “The Hunt for Red Hot Hydrothermal Vents”. It tells the story about their search for the vents on the sea floor of the Arctic and the animals that live around them.

NASA Image

The world’s oceans act as a carbon sink, absorbing approximately one-fourth of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. A five-year study shows that the North Atlantic, a vital area, is absorbing only half the amount of gas it did in the mid-90s. Why is this happening?

Scientists discovered a huge volcano off the southwestern coast of Iceland, and think it may erupt at any time. The find is significant because scientists had previously thought that volcanoes could not form in that area of the ocean.

Using the latest satellite observations, NASA researchers and others report that the Arctic is still on “thin ice” when it comes to the condition of sea ice cover in the region. A colder-than-average winter in some regions of the Arctic this year has yielded an increase in the area of new sea ice, while the older sea ice that lasts for several years has continued to decline.

“Researchers at Texas A&M University have confirmed for the first time that a “dead zone” has existed off the Texas coast for at least the past 23 years and will likely remain there, causing potential harmful effects to marine life in the area.” Quoted from the Earth Observatory release.

Researchers surveying Antarctic waters have discovered a multitude of creepy sea beasts, many of them new to science. National Geographic has an interesting photo gallery of some of these creatures.

“The Coastal Change Analysis Program is a nationally standardized database of land cover and land change information, developed using remotely sensed imagery, for the coastal regions of the U.S. The Coastal Change Analysis Program is a nationally standardized database of land cover and land change information, developed using remotely sensed imagery, for the coastal regions of the U.S.” Quoted from the CCAP website.

NASA Image

Crashing waves in the deep ocean can generate enough energy to create a seismic “hum.” This hum has long been detected on seismometers. The cumulative energy of this hum is equal to combined energy of all earthquakes generated worldwide. Now scientists have identified a location in the North Atlantic where these vibrations are emitted.

Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that grow in the sunlit surface waters of the ocean. When enough phytoplankton grow in one place, the bloom can be seen from space. This collection of NASA images features worldwide phytoplankton blooms.

The Ocean Motion website provides resources for inquiry-based learning about the oceans by students at the high school grade-level. It features lots of ocean current data, satellite images, weather/climate data and other information that students might find engaging.

Engineers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are testing a new system that extends the length of sediment samples cored from the sea floor. In September, they successfully pulled cores weighing up to 30,000 pounds and measuring up to 45 meters long. Typical cores are about half of that length.

The Google Earth Blog has a post that summarizes some of the data that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has made available for use in Google Earth. They also provide links to important data locations at NOAA and to previous Google Earth Blog posts that describe available data.

The Bonhomme Richard was a Revolutionary War ship under the command of American captain, John Paul Jones. In July, 2007, scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used modern technology to search for the ship at the bottom of the North Sea.

The chemistry at this Atlantic hydrothermal vent site may be an analog for origins of life. The vents pump ion-rich waters up from deep beneath the sea floor and huge mineral deposits accumulate on the sea floor around them. The vents at Lost City differ from the typical black smokers because the deposits forming are mainly carbonates.

Adding iron to the ocean under the right conditions can trigger enormous algal blooms. The organisms in these blooms absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide and sink to the bottom upon death, removing the carbon dioxide from the environment for long periods of time. This issue of Oceanus has several articles that explore this concept.

“The Chesapeake Bay is affected by multiple factors, ranging from population growth to climate variability, which will challenge the recovery of this important ecosystem.” Quoted from the USGS release.

“More than 40 percent of the world’s oceans are heavily affected by human activities, and few if any areas remain untouched, according to the first global-scale study of human influence on marine ecosystems. By overlaying maps of 17 different activities such as fishing, climate change and pollution, the researchers have produced a composite map of the toll that humans have exacted on the seas.” Quoted from the NSF release.

“Gas hydrates are a naturally occurring, ice-like combination of natural gas and water found in the world’s oceans and polar regions. These natural gas accumulations are estimated to greatly exceed the volume of all known conventional (commercial) gas resources. Currently, the technical challenges of realizing them as a resource are substantial.”

Arctic Ocean Map

Researchers at the University of New Hampshire and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have data suggesting that the foot of the continental slope off Alaska is more than 100 nautical miles farther out than previously assumed. If this is correct it could give the United States exclusive claim to additional valuable energy and mineral resources on and below the sea floor.

“Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that natural variability in the Earth’s atmosphere could be masking the overall effect of global warming in the North Atlantic Ocean.” Quoted from the NASA release.

USGS Image

Did you know that the Puerto Rico Trench is the deepest part of the Atlantic? Brian Roman’s has a short summary of the Puerto Rico Trench, with map and block diagram, and a link to where you can learn more about it.

Here’s an article that explores some of the negative aspects of plastic in our oceans. Certain toxins are attracted to the surface of this plastic and many fish, birds and animals mistakenly eat plastic - then have a large undigestable object in their stomach.

The Southern Ocean is believed to play significant roles in determining the climate of Earth. The ocean is thought to serve as a “carbon pump” where algal blooms hundreds of miles across can develop and then drift or sink to the ocean depths.

NASA Image

Ocean surface currents play a major role in determining weather, climate and transportation challenges. ESA plans to employ a new radar technique to study the currents from space. They hope to obtain information about ocean current strength, variability and influence on climate change.

IBCAO Image

Satellite bathymetry is a method of determining ocean depths from orbiting radar altimeters that observe variations in sea surface height relative to the reference ellipsoid.

Brian Romans describes sedimentation at Fraser Island, Australia and it subaqueous extension called the Breaksea Spit. Information in his post is based upon a recent article from Geology by Ron Boyd of the University of Newcastle, and others.

A study by the Spanish Oceanographic Institute reports on a rising Mediterranean Sea and the impact that it might have on coastal areas and environment.

Millions of tiny ocean plants are producing phytoplankton blooms near the Falkland Islands. The bloom is carried by the Malvinas (Falkland) Current, which passes near the Falkland Islands. This current is cold and loaded with nutrients which drive the bloom.

LANL.gov Image

PressConnections.com has an article that points out that global warming is much broader than a temperature change. Sea level rise, hurricane intensity changes, El Niño changes, extreme weather changes and modified wind and ocean current changes are all part of this problem.

Scientists studying earthquakes beneath the sea floor have obtained new information about the water circulation at hydrothermal vents. They propose new ideas about how the circulation occurs that are very different from what was previously believed.

“A Duke University-led analysis of available records shows that while the North Atlantic Ocean’s surface waters warmed in the 50 years between 1950 and 2000, the change was not uniform. In fact, the subpolar regions cooled at the same time that subtropical and tropical waters warmed.” Quoted from the NASA article.

At many locations methane, a potent greenhouse gas, seeps into the ocean waters from sub-seafloor deposits. Much of this methane dissolves in the ocean waters as the bubbles make their way to the surface. University of Santa Barbara researchers have discovered that only about one percent of this escaped methane escapes into the atmosphere.

“As pH declines in the world’s oceans, the effects on coral reefs could be more harmful than previously thought. This pH decline, a process known as “ocean acidification,” occurs due to absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. As a result, the growth of reef builders may be severely inhibited.” (Quoted from USGS Newsroom)

Earth Observatory has an interesting satellite image of a phytoplankton bloom off the Atlantic coast of Argentina. The blue-green plume is a result of billions of tiny plants growing in the ocean surface waters. The Malvinas Current travels north along the continental shelf. Its motion pulls deep, cold nutrient rich waters up to the surface. These waters act as a natural fertilizer for the production of the phytoplankton.