Oceans

Oceans Break Heat Record for Third Year in a Row

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The world’s oceans reached their hottest levels on record in 2021. It’s the third year in a row it’s happened, and it’s driven almost entirely by human-caused climate change, scientists announced yesterday. The findings are presented in a paper published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. As excess heat accumulates in the atmosphere, caused by continued greenhouse … Read more

Ocean Temperatures Just Smashed a New Record For The Sixth Year in a Row

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Ocean temperatures the world over are building at a relentless rate as humans continue to alter the atmosphere around them. In 2021, according to a new summary of two international datasets, the wave of warmth in our oceans hit a new peak, eclipsing the influence of cooler regional episodes.   While last year’s ocean warming … Read more

Saturn: Planet’s moon Mimas may be hiding an impossible ocean

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Mimas doesn’t show any hints of liquid water, and it seems impossible that it could have an ocean under its surface, but that’s exactly what a new set of simulations suggest Space 11 January 2022 By Leah Crane Mimas, a moon of Saturn, imaged by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Saturn’s moon Mimas may … Read more

Ambergris: What fragrant whale excretions tell us about ancient oceans

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Ancient whale poo, known as ambergris, has long been prized by perfumiers – but it also contains precious information about ancient oceans that could help save today’s whales Humans 15 December 2021 By Claire Ainsworth Peter Crowther THEY say, where there’s muck, there’s brass. Anyone who has stumbled upon ambergris will confirm this. The weathered … Read more

Did monkeys really sail the oceans on floating rafts of vegetation?

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The mystery of how some species colonised new continents is as old as the theory of evolution itself. Now, with fresh clues surfacing, the rafting hypothesis might finally sink or swim Life 15 December 2021 By Graham Lawton Brett Ryder IN DECEMBER 2016, Uwe Fritz at the Museum of Zoology in Dresden, Germany, was doing … Read more

Moving CO2 from Air to Oceans May Be Necessary to Slow Warming

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Climbing concentrations of carbon dioxide make it likely that humans will have to move some gases from the atmosphere into the oceans to prevent crippling effects of climate change, the National Academies said in a major report released yesterday. It came after months of deliberation among top U.S. scientists who concluded that global efforts to … Read more