Ocean Science

Scientists are eager for access to information from a quarter-billion dollar lab at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean that they hope will teach them about climate change, earthquakes and even the origins of life on Earth and other planets.

The $239 million National Science Foundation project will install video cameras, seismic monitors and other gauges along a volcano in deep waters off the Pacific Northwest coast, giving researchers the ability to monitor activity 2 miles below the ocean surface.

The United Nations has published its first plan for deep sea mining and says companies could apply for mining licenses as soon as 2016.

One afternoon in the waning days of winter, the most powerful man in Newtok, Alaska, hopped on a plane and flew 1,000 miles to plead for the survival of his village. Stanley Tom, Newtok's administrator, had a clear purpose for his trip: find the money to move the village on the shores of the Bering Sea out of the way of an approaching disaster caused by climate change.

British researchers have revealed the street of a lost medieval town dubbed 'Britain's Atlantis', for the first time.

The team from the University of Southampton used advanced 3D scanning to reveal the port town of Dunwich.

Present day Dunwich is a village 14 miles south of Lowestoft in Suffolk, but it was once a thriving port – similar in size to 14th Century London until coastal erosion left it 10M underwater.

The Panama Canal has been nominated for the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award under the International Cooperation category in recognition of its service to the maritime industry, international trade and being a symbol of peaceful understanding between countries.

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, in collaboration with two private industry firms, are developing potentially breakthrough technologies to capture vital information from the world’s oceans.

Scripps researchers John Orcutt and Jon Berger have developed a Memorandum of Understanding with Horton Wison Deepwater (HWD) and John Crane Production Solutions (JCPS) in developing new, uniquely stable and long-lasting ocean buoys with sensors moored to the seafloor to measure ground motion, water column pressure, pH, current speed and direction, optical and acoustic backscatter, salinity, temperature, and myriad other variables over extended periods of time.

Marine scientists have long understood the detrimental effect of fossil fuel emissions on marine ecosystems. But a group led by a UC Santa Barbara professor has found a point of resilience in a microscopic shelled plant with a massive environmental impact, which suggests the future of ocean life may not be so bleak.

n January 2010, a crew of scientists voyaged by ship from the southern tip of Chile into the frigid Antarctic to search for clues to one of the great unknowns of climate change. They planned to crisscross a remote patch of sea near the spot where, a year earlier, another crew had injected a tankful of an inert chemical one mile below the surface. The new crew had seven weeks of funding and good weather to sample the seawater throughout the region and discover where the chemical went.

Reliable information on the depth and floor structure of the Southern Ocean has so far been available for only few coastal regions of the Antarctic. An international team of scientists under the leadership of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, has for the first time succeeded in creating a digital map of the entire Antarctic seafloor.

Australian scientists have released a study detailing how minor earthquakes can instantly create new gold veins underground.

According to the new study, published inNature Geoscience, the process can occur within a few tenths of a second along 'fault jogs' – the cracks that connect the main fault lines in the earth's crust.

University of Queensland seismologist Dion Weatherley and Australian National University geochemist Richard Henley are behind thenew research, which could be useful for prospectors and earthquake scientists alike.

As part of a U.S. Navy-funded project, researchers from Virginia Tech College of Engineering have unveiled a lifelike, autonomous robotic jellyfish the size and weight of a grown man: 1.70m in length and weighing 77kg. The goal is to place self-powering, autonomous machines in waters for the purposes of surveillance and monitoring the environment, in addition to other uses such as studying aquatic life, mapping ocean floors and monitoring ocean currents.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Program announced today up to $1.9 million to reduce market barriers commonly faced by the marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technology industry. Through this competitive funding opportunity, the Energy Department will collaborate with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to select up to 11 awards to collect environmental monitoring and experimental data from deployed MHK technology devices.

NOAA kicked off its spring season with post-Hurricane Sandy hydrographic work on April 11. A NOAA navigation response team—equipped with high-tech surveying equipment—began a survey in the waters surrounding Liberty Island and Ellis Island.

Ministers from the eight Arctic states and representatives of the Arctic Indigenous Peoples met on 15 May 2013 in Kiruna, Sweden, at the conclusion of Sweden’s two-year Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The forward-looking statement entitled ‘Vision for the Arctic’ was adopted at the meeting. The document outlines the Arctic states’ and indigenous Permanent Participants’ joint vision for the development of the region.

Kongsberg Underwater Technology, Inc. announced today that it has successfully completed negotiations with the University of Washington’s Center for Commercialization to obtain the sole rights to produce, market and continue the development of Seaglider ™ technology.

HMS Ledbury has found the remains of a German sea mine from World War 2 on the very first day of her deployment.

The mine was found by HMS Ledbury during a period of training to ensure the Royal Navy mine hunter is ready to operate as part of the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group in the Mediterranean.

"It will be the first time we've had an all-woman crew," said retired NOAA Corps Capt. Jack Moakley, who first commanded the Research Vessel Gloria Michelle, the ship of which Lt. Villard-Howe, 32, of Martha's Vineyard, assumed command.

Waves deep below the ocean surface help explain how global currents work, and may improve climate predictions, according to scientists including a Stanford Woods Institute-affiliated researcher.

Stanford researchersLeif Thomas and Dan Whitt have discovered an undersea surf zone, where wind-spawned waves traveling as much as 500 meters below the sea surface break as they hit the boundaries between currents of differing density, such as cool subpolar and warm subtropical currents, causing the water carried by the currents to mix

Four young explorers including American actor Ezra Miller have planted a flag on the seabed at the north pole and demanded the region is declared a global sanctuary.

The expedition, organised by Greenpeace, saw the flag lowered in a time capsule that contained the signatures of nearly 3 million people who are calling for a ban on exploitation in the region.

Climate change is causing record losses of sea ice in the Arctic, which is driving exploration for new oil and gas fields and the increasing use of shipping routes across the region.

The purpose of ARGUS™, which has been in operation and field testing since 2010, is to automate the acquisition and processing of depth, environmental, and meteorological data from coastal and inland waterways and provide the data to Government, commercial, academic, and other interested organizations.

The SailBuoy is equipped with two-way satellite communication for real-time data streaming and waypoint updates. It transmits data to the Deep-C Operations Center at regular intervals along a planned course.

The Deep-C Sailbuoy is part of a new generation of vehicles designed for marine observations that are enabling scientists to expand and intensify the study of the seas and oceans. It can keep station or travel from point to point, and is a technology owned by the Norwegian company CMR.

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued new requirements for cleansing ballast water dumped from ships, which scientists believe has provided a pathway to U.S. waters for invasive species that damage ecosystems and cost the economy billions of dollars.

Commercial vessels are equipped with tanks that can hold millions of gallons of water to provide stability in rough seas. But live creatures often lurk in the soupy brews of water, seaweed and sediment. If they survive transoceanic journeys and are released into U.S. waters, they can multiply rapidly, crowding out native species and spreading diseases.

Since the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s, scientists have known that new seafloor is created throughout the major ocean basins at linear chains of volcanoes known as mid-ocean ridges. But where exactly does the erupted magma come from?

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego now have a better idea after capturing a unique image of a site deep in the earth where magma is generated.