Latest Physical oceanography Stories
SEATTLE, March 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Asian, North American and South American countries on the Pacific Rim are facing tsunami alerts following a 8.9 magnitude earthquake, reported to have occurred near Japan's east coast today. "Our offices in Indonesia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands are on alert and staff in coastal areas have been advised, said Geoff Shepherd, World Vision's Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs Director for the Asia-Pacific region. "We've also...
Japanese Earthquake And Tsunami UpdatesUPDATE: Wednesday, 16 March 2011 6:10am CSTJapanese authorities have been desperately trying to prevent an environmental catastrophe at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex some 140 miles north of Tokyo. Workers at the facility have been scrambling to keep the radioactive cores of the reactors from evaporating, which would lead to overheating and possibly a dangerous meltdown.The tsunami that hit Japan following the devastating magnitude...
Nearly half a mile of rock retrieved from beneath the seafloor is yielding new clues about how underwater volcanoes are created and whether the hotspots that led to their formation have moved over time.Geoscientists have just completed an expedition to a string of underwater volcanoes, or seamounts, in the Pacific Ocean known as the Louisville Seamount Trail.There they collected samples of sediments, basalt lava flows and other volcanic eruption materials to piece together the history of this...
Millions of Americans are dealing with an above average year for storms as an atmospheric phenomenon continues to churn in the eastern Pacific Ocean with little chance of dissipating soon. The current winter storm -- being called the blizzard of 2011 -- is possibly a product of the La Nina phenomenon that has been affecting the tropical Pacific Ocean for the past several months, the same phenomenon that is being blamed for the devastating floods and storms battering eastern Australia. Here in...
Engineers have created a new type of "stereo vision" to use in studying ocean waves as they pound against the shore, providing a better way to understand and monitor this violent, ever-changing environment.The approach, which uses two video cameras to feed data into an advanced computer system, can observe large areas of ocean waves in real time and help explain what they are doing and why, scientists say.The system may be of particular value as climate change and rising sea levels pose...
The temperature of water situated in the subtropical Atlantic experienced a drop of 0.15ºC between 1998 and 2006. This has been revealed by a study led by the IEO (Spanish Oceanography Institute) which suggests that circulation caused by wind could be responsible for this "unusual" behavior.Whilst the water temperature in this area, situated along the 24.5º north parallel, from the African coast to the Caribbean, rose by 0.27ºC between 1957 and 1998, researchers have...
The La Nina weather pattern circulating through the eastern-central Pacific Ocean, which is behind the floods and extreme conditions in Australia, Asia, Africa and South America is one of the strongest ever and could last for four more months, according to the UN weather agency. "In atmospheric terms it has to be termed one of the strongest ever La Nina episodes," Rupa Kumar Kolli, head of world climate services at the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO), told the AFP news agency....
Scientists reported on Friday that Greenland's icesheet shed a record amount of melted snow and ice in 2010. The study found that the 2010 runoff was twice the average annual loss in Greenland over the previous three decades, surpassing a record set in 2007. According to the paper, ice melt has now topped this benchmark every year since 1996. Greenland's icesheet could drive up ocean levels by about 23 feet if it melted, drowning coastal cities around the world. No credible projections today...
The unusually cold weather this winter has been caused by a change in the winds. Instead of the typical westerly winds warmed by Atlantic surface ocean currents, cold northerly Arctic winds are influencing much of Europe.However, scientists have long suspected that far more severe and longer-lasting cold intervals have been caused by changes to the circulation of the warm Atlantic ocean currents themselves.Now new research led by Cardiff University, with scientists in the UK and US, reveals...
New NASA satellite data indicate the current La Niña event in the eastern Pacific has remained strong during November and December 2010.A new Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite image of the Pacific Ocean that averaged 10 days of data was just released from NASA. The image, centered on Dec. 26, 2010, was created at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif."The solid record of La Niña strength only goes back about 50 years and this latest event...
Latest Physical oceanography Reference Libraries
Coral reefs are submerged structures consisting of calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of small animals found in marine waters that enclose few nutrients. The majority of coral reefs are constructed from stony corals, which then consist of polyps that come together in groups. The polyps are like small sea anemones, to which they are very closely related. Unlike the sea anemones, coral polyps secrete hard carbonate exoskeletons which provide support and protections...
The sea levels all around the world are rising. Current sea-level rise has the potential to affect human populations and the natural environment. Two key factors have contributed to the observed sea level rise. The first is thermal expansion: as the ocean water warms, it expands. The second is from the influence of land-based ice because of increased melting. The major store of water on land is found in the glaciers and the ice sheets. The rising of sea levels is one of several lines of...
Image Credit: Meteorologist Joshua Kelly When meteorologists are forecasting for ocean-going vessels, there are a few terms that we need to understand. The first term is wavelength. Wavelength is defined as the distance between two crests or between two troughs as seen in the image above. The example above highlights the crest to crest concept of wavelength. The next term that we use is wave height, and to determine this, we first must look at the wave when it passes our station. When...
If you live in or around Billings, Montana the above graph shows you what you can roughly expect when it comes to heating and cooling your house during the ENSO Phases. In Billings during a normal phase of the ENSO your heating degree days pass 900HDD. However, when El-Nino phase is present the monthly average dropped to around 650.5HDD, which is a pretty significant amount especially when you are talking about paying that heating bill. When the La-Nina phase sets up the heating degree...
If you live in or around Bismarck North Dakota the graph shows you what you can roughly expect when it comes to heating and cooling your house during the ENSO Phases. Bismarck North Dakota, with its northern latitude, does have an impact on what type of heating and cooling it sees. During an Normal Phase the HDD for the region hits about 1348 on average. When the region enters into an El-Nino they can expect the amount of HDD’s to decrease to around 970 which really helps cut down on the...
