Tag: Oceanography
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Scientists Are Racing to Study Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier Before It’s Too Late
Countdown to a Climate-Critical Mission On a ship leaving New Zealand, nearly 40 scientists set course for one of the most consequential research voyages in modern climate science. Their destination is Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, a vast ice mass often dubbed the “Doomsday Glacier” for its potential to accelerate sea-level rise if destabilized. The expedition aims…
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Scientists Race to Study Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier Before It Melts Away
Urgent Mission Aboard a New Zealand-Bound Expedition A ship carrying nearly 40 scientists has departed from New Zealand for a mission many describe as among the most consequential on Earth. The goal: to study Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier, often dubbed the “doomsday glacier” for its potential to reshape global coastlines if its wall of ice collapses.…
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NASA Detects Tiny Red Plankton That Helps Save Endangered Right Whales
How a Satellite Spotlighted a Tiny Ocean Player In a surprising turn of satellite science, NASA’s Aqua mission recently focused on a microscopic yet mighty creature lurking in the Atlantic: Calanus finmarchicus, a red plankton species whose abundance can influence the fate of the North Atlantic right whale. Far off the New England coast, researchers…
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Tiny Red Plankton, Big Hope: How NASA’s Ocean Watch Helps Save the North Atlantic Right Whale
Introduction: A Satellite Perspective on the Ocean’s Tiny Pillars Far off the New England coast, scientists have long known that the fate of the North Atlantic right whale is closely tied to what happens beneath the waves. This week, NASA’s Aqua satellite provided a new lens on that connection by detecting vast clouds of a…
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Anatomy of a Phytoplankton Bloom North of Hawai’i
Introduction: A recurring ocean spectacle Every summer, satellite sensors reveal a vast, swirling bloom of microscopic life north of the Hawaiian Islands. These phytoplankton blooms, though invisible to the naked eye, color the surface of the Pacific and play a pivotal role in marine food webs and the global carbon cycle. Recent research from scientists…
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Anatomy of a Phytoplankton Bloom North of Hawai’i: What the Swirls Reveal
Introduction: The Summer Swirls Above Hawai’i Every summer, satellite images reveal vast swirls of color drifting north of the Hawaiian Islands. These phytoplankton blooms, driven by a complex mix of light, nutrients, and water movement, illuminate the upper ocean in hues of green and brown. Yet the precise mechanisms that spark, sustain, and dissipate these…
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Anatomy of a phytoplankton bloom revealed north of Hawai’i
Overview Every summer, satellite imagery captures a spectacular feature in the North Pacific: vast swirls of color north of the Hawaiian Islands marking intense phytoplankton blooms. While these microscopic plants form the base of the ocean food web, the physical and biological forces that drive these seasonal blooms have long remained elusive. A new investigation…
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Bermuda’s Hidden Giant: A Deep Beneath-the-Island Structure Redefining Earth’s History
New Discovery Unearths a Deep Geological Enigma Beneath Bermuda In a discovery that could rewrite the geologic history of one of the world’s most legendary locations, researchers report a massive structure lying about deep beneath Bermuda. The team, whose findings are published in Geophysical Research Letters, describe a formation that stretches an astonishing 12.4 miles…
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Mysterious Pacific Beneath: Dense Mantle Anomalies Could Redefine Earth’s History
Unveiling the Hidden World Beneath the Pacific Scientists have long peeked into Earth’s interior with seismic waves, mapping a dynamic, complex mantle beneath our oceans. The latest findings from the western Pacific, however, reveal dense rock structures that don’t fit neatly into prevailing models of subducting tectonic plates or mantle convection. Using high-resolution seismic imaging,…
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Small, inexpensive hydrophone boosts undersea signals
A Compact, Cost-Effective Breakthrough Researchers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory have unveiled a breakthrough in underwater sensing: a small, inexpensive hydrophone built around a standard commercial microphone. By leveraging a mature microfabrication platform known as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), the team has created a device capable of capturing faint underwater signals with a simplicity and scalability that…