Oceanography

First Accurate Glacier Inventory Created

We know some glaciers are growing and we know some glaciers are receding. What we did not know until recently is how many glaciers there are, where they are, and what their extents and volumes are. That has changed- for the first time reliable calculations ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2014 - 9:33am

Is Sea Level Rise Accelerating?

Sea levels are always changing, they always have. We can't count how many glaciers there are because the number is different every year. But the big question is if sea level rise is inceasing or, worse, accelerating. A new model may help figure out i ...

Article - News Staff - May 9 2014 - 9:00pm

West Antarctic Glacier Loss Worst In 40 Years

Multiple lines of evidence incorporating 40 years of observations that six massive glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector "have passed the point of no return", a worrisome sign for melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Those glaciers already con ...

Article - News Staff - May 12 2014 - 2:21pm

West Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse Is Only A Few Centuries Away

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds enough water to raise global seas by several feet, is thinning and computer models predict that the collapse may already have begun. The Thwaites Glacier could disappear in a few hundred years, raising sea levels ...

Article - News Staff - May 15 2014 - 12:00am

Not Just Warming: Forest Fire Ash Also Drove Surface Melting Of Greenland Ice Sheet

Between 1889 and 2012, the Greenland sheet saw large-scale surface melting, according to the best available evidence. But claims that the melt events were driven by warming alone are incorrect, according to a new study. Ash from  northern hemisphere fores ...

Article - News Staff - May 19 2014 - 6:36pm

New Arctic Shipping Routes Mean New Passages For Invasive Species Too

Two new shipping routes have opened in the Arctic: the Northwest Passage through Canada, and the Northern Sea Route, a 3,000-mile stretch along the coasts of Russia and Norway connecting the Barents and Bering seas. Overall, it means for the first time in ...

Article - News Staff - May 28 2014 - 9:29am

Antarctic Ice Sheet- It's Never Been Very Stable

Evidence for massive and abrupt iceberg calving in Antarctica dating back 19,000 to 9,000 years ago is based on an analysis of new, long deep sea sediment cores extracted from the region between the Falkland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.  The study ...

Article - News Staff - May 28 2014 - 3:34pm

Deep Sea Fish Remove 1 Million Tons Of CO2 Annually From North Atlantic Waters

Deep sea fish help keep more than one million tons of CO2 from UK and Irish surface waters every year- that's worth £10 million per year in carbon credits, if anyone actually paid full price for those. Those fish living in deep waters on the continen ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 3 2014 - 10:57pm

New Permafrost Is Forming Around Arctic Lakes

Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and McGill University have found here is new permafrost forming around Twelvemile Lake in the interior of Alaska.  Twelvemile Lake, and many others like it, have been shrinking over the past thirty years, now be ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 10 2014 - 3:22pm

MedSeA Study: Acidification And Warming Threaten Mediterranean Sea

Researchers have found that Mediterranean Sea warming and acidification is happening  at unprecedented rates – the main reason, they believe, is emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which causes warming of the atmosphere and the ocean as well ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 15 2014 - 12:04pm