Latest and Breaking Oceanography News

Batchelor Foundation challenge grant to support helicopter purchase
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) The University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science announced that it has received a challenge grant for $700,000 from the Miami-based Batchelor Foundation to support its exploration research efforts. The funds will be applied toward the acquisition of a helicopter outfitted with a suite of scientific equipment that will serve as the basis for a one-of-a-kind platform for environmental observations at the School.

University of Miami student Bignami among 5 Guy Harvey Scholarship recipients
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science graduate student Sean Bignami received a Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation scholarship for his studies of how the changing chemistry of marine waters as a result of ocean acidification might affect the early development of large marine fish.

WHOI scientists will install first real-time seafloor earthquake observatory at Cascadia Fault
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) A $1 million grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation to scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will fund the first seafloor geodesy observatory above the expected rupture zone of the Pacific Northwest's Cascadia fault -- an offshore, subduction zone fault capable of producing a magnitude 9 earthquake and generating a large tsunami.

Google Earth ocean terrain receives major update
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of California - San Diego) Internet information giant Google updated ocean data in its Google Earth application this week, reflecting new bathymetry data assembled by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, NOAA researchers and many other ocean mapping groups from around the world.

Scientists coax shy microorganisms to stand out in a crowd
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Washington) Scientists have advanced a method that allowed them to single out a marine microorganism and map its genome even though the organism made up less than 10 percent of a water sample teeming with many millions of individuals from dozens of identifiable groups of microbes.

Global experts question claims about jellyfish populations
1 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of California - Santa Barbara) Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations -- clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants -- and recent media reports have created a perception that the world's oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish.

Global experts question claims about jellyfish populations
1 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Southampton) A global study has questioned claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide.

AGU journal highlights -- Jan. 31, 2012
31 January 2012, 5:00 am
(American Geophysical Union) Featured in this release are research papers on the following topics: "Fine, jagged ash increased Eyjafjallajökull volcano's influence," "Geological evidence for past earthquakes in Tokyo region," "Much irrigation water comes from non-sustainable sources," "Greenland's pronounced glacier retreat not irreversible," "New record from stalagmites shows climate history in Central Asia," "Io's volcanism influences Jupiter's magnetosphere," and "Massive swarm of tunicates tilts ocean's chemical balance."

The Arctic is already suffering the effects of a dangerous climate change
30 January 2012, 5:00 am
(CSIC, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) Two decades after the United Nations established the Framework Convention on Climate Change in order to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system", the Arctic shows the first signs of a dangerous climate change. A team of researchers led by CSIC assures so in an article published in the latest issue of the Nature Climate Change magazine.

New CU-Boulder-led study may answer questions about enigmatic Little Ice Age
30 January 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Colorado at Boulder) According to new University of Colorado Boulder-led study, the Little Ice Age began abruptly between A.D. 1275 and 1300, triggered by repeated, explosive volcanism, and was sustained for centuries by a self- perpetuating sea ice-ocean feedback system in the North Atlantic Ocean.