Oceanography News

May 21, 2024

Top Headlines

A Rise in Sea Urchins and Related Damage to Kelp Forests Impacts Oregon's Gray Whales and Their Food

May 21, 2024 — A recent boom in the purple sea urchin population off the southern Oregon Coast appears to have had an indirect and negative impact on the gray whales that usually forage in the region, a new study ...

New Research Reveals That Prehistoric Seafloor Pockmarks Off the California Coast Are Maintained by Powerful Sediment Flows

May 21, 2024 — New research on a field of pockmarks -- large, circular depressions on the seafloor -- offshore of Central California has revealed that powerful sediment flows, not methane gas eruptions, maintain ...

Subduction Zone Splay Faults Compound Hazards of Great Earthquakes

May 20, 2024 — Groundbreaking research has provided new insight into the tectonic plate shifts that create some of the Earth's largest earthquakes and ...

Record Low Antarctic Sea Ice 'Extremely Unlikely' Without Climate Change

May 20, 2024 — Scientists have found that the record-low levels of sea ice around Antarctica in 2023 were extremely unlikely to happen without the influence of climate change. This low was a one-in-a-2000-year event without climate change and four times more ...

Latest Headlines

updated 5:59pm EDT

'Vigorous Melting' at Antarctica's Thwaites 'Doomsday' Glacier

May 20, 2024 — Glaciologists show evidence of warm ocean water intruding kilometers beneath grounded ice at Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. The findings suggest that existing climate models are underestimating ...

Zombie Cells in the Sea: Viruses Keep the Most Common Marine Bacteria in Check

May 17, 2024 — Marine microbes control the flux of matter and energy essential for life in the oceans. Among them, the bacterial group SAR11 accounts for about a ...

Otters, Especially Females, Use Tools to Survive a Changing World

May 16, 2024 — Sea otters are one of the few animals that use tools to access their food, and a new study has found that individual sea otters that use tools -- most of whom are female -- are able to eat larger ...

Jet-Propelled Sea Creatures Could Improve Ocean Robotics

May 15, 2024 — Scientists have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion, an unusual kind of locomotion that could inspire ...

Final Dust Settles Slowly in the Deep Sea

May 15, 2024 — 'Dust clouds' at the bottom of the deep sea, that will be created by deep-sea mining activities, descend at a short distance for the biggest part. Yet, a small portion of the stirred-up bottom ...

GPS Stations Measure Daily Ice Loss in Greenland

May 14, 2024 — Monitoring the effects of climate change in Greenland has been made much easier with an innovative ...

Today's World: Fastest Rate of Carbon Dioxide Rise Over the Last 50,000 Years

May 13, 2024 — Today's rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years, researchers have found ...

Transformation of Ocean Management Is Underway

May 9, 2024 — Despite its benefits and recognition as a keystone practice of ocean stewardship and conservation, adoption of ecosystem-based management has been slow to take hold. To support this change in ocean ...

Ocean Biodiversity Work Needs Improvement

May 9, 2024 — An international collaboration says the world's largest marine protected areas aren't collectively delivering the biodiversity benefits they could be because of slow implementation of management ...

Marine Bacteria Team Up to Produce a Vital Vitamin

May 8, 2024 — Two species of marine bacteria from the North Sea have established an unusual and sometimes destructive relationship to produce the important vitamin B12. The team's experiments show that the two ...

Human Activity Is Making It Harder for Scientists to Interpret Oceans' Past

May 8, 2024 — New research shows human activity is significantly altering the ways in which marine organisms are preserved, with lasting effects that can both improve and impair the fossil ...

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease Is Shifting the Ecological Balance of Caribbean Reefs

May 3, 2024 — A new study shows stony coral tissue loss disease is causing drastic changes in the Caribbean's population of corals, which is sure to disrupt the delicate balance of the ecosystem and threaten ...

Ice Shelves Fracture Under Weight of Meltwater Lakes

May 3, 2024 — Heavy pooling meltwater can fracture ice, potentially leading to ice shelf ...

For Microscopic Organisms, Ocean Currents Act as 'Expressway' to Deeper Depths

May 2, 2024 — Some of the ocean's tiniest organisms get swept into underwater currents that act as a conduit that shuttles them from the sunny surface to deeper, darker depths where they play a huge role in ...

Human Activity Is Causing Toxic Thallium to Enter the Baltic Sea, According to New Study

May 2, 2024 — Human activities account for 20% to more than 60% of toxic thallium entering the Baltic Sea over the past eight decades, according to new research. Currently, the amount of thallium, which is ...

Mystery Behind Huge Opening in Antarctic Sea Ice Solved

May 1, 2024 — Researchers have discovered the missing piece of the puzzle behind a rare opening in the sea ice around Antarctica, which was nearly twice the size of Wales and occurred during the winters of 2016 ...

Rock Solid Evidence: Angola Geology Reveals Prehistoric Split Between South America and Africa

May 1, 2024 — A research team has found that ancient rocks and fossils from long-extinct marine reptiles in Angola clearly show a key part of Earth's past -- the splitting of South America and Africa and the ...

Feedback Loop That Is Melting Ice Shelves in West Antarctica Revealed

Apr. 22, 2024 — New research has uncovered a feedback loop that may be accelerating the melting of the floating portions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, pushing up global sea levels. The study sheds new light on ...

Surf Clams Off the Coast of Virginia Reappear -- And Rebound

Apr. 19, 2024 — The Atlantic surfclam, an economically valuable species that is the main ingredient in clam chowder and fried clam strips, has returned to Virginia waters in a big way, reversing a die-off that ...

Helping Migrating Salmon Survive Mortality Hot-Spot

Apr. 19, 2024 — Researchers used acoustic telemetry to tag and track coho on their ...

Warming of Antarctic Deep-Sea Waters Contribute to Sea Level Rise in North Atlantic, Study Finds

Apr. 19, 2024 — Analysis of mooring observations and hydrographic data suggest the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation deep water limb in the North Atlantic has weakened. Two decades of continual ...

One Third of China's Urban Population at Risk of City Sinking, New Satellite Data Shows

Apr. 18, 2024 — Land subsidence is overlooked as a hazard in cities, according to new research. Scientists used satellite data that accurately and consistently maps land movement across ...

Marine Microbial Populations: Potential Sensors of the Global Change in the Ocean

Apr. 18, 2024 — Animal and plant populations have been extensively studied, which has helped to understand ecosystem processes and evolutionary adaptations. However, this has not been the case with microbial ...

Ice Age Climate Analysis Reduces Worst-Case Warming Expected from Rising CO2

Apr. 17, 2024 — A detailed reconstruction of climate during the most recent ice age, when a large swath of North America was covered in ice, provides information on the relationship between CO2 and global ...

Coral Reef Microbes Point to New Way to Assess Ecosystem Health

Apr. 16, 2024 — A new study shows that ocean acidification is changing the mix of microbes in coral reef systems, which can be used to assess ecosystem ...

Huge Database Gives Insight Into Salmon Patterns at Sea

Apr. 16, 2024 — A massive new analysis of high seas salmon surveys is enhancing the understanding of salmon ecology, adding details about where various species congregate in the North Pacific Ocean and their ...

New Tagging Method Provides Bioadhesive Interface for Marine Sensors on Diverse, Soft, and Fragile Species

Apr. 16, 2024 — Tagging marine animals with sensors to track their movements and ocean conditions can provide important environmental and behavioral information. Existing techniques to attach sensors currently ...

Plastic Pollution Can Kill Variety of Ocean Embryos

Apr. 16, 2024 — High levels of plastic pollution can kill the embryos of a wide range of ocean animals, new research ...

Hidden Threat: Global Underground Infrastructure Vulnerable to Sea-Level Rise

Apr. 15, 2024 — As sea levels rise, coastal groundwater is lifted closer to the ground surface while also becoming saltier and more corrosive. A recent study compiled research from experts worldwide showing that in ...

Where Have All the Right Whales Gone?

Apr. 12, 2024 — Marine researchers have mapped the density of one of the most endangered large whale species worldwide, the North Atlantic right whale, using new data to help avoid right whales' harmful ...