Lakes Discovered Beneath Greenland Ice Sheet

A study published on November 27th 2013 in the Geophysical Research Letter has recently discovered 2 subglacial lakes under the Greenland Ice Sheet.  These two lakes are 800 meters beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet.  They are also each approximately 8-10 kilometers and are said to have been triple their current size in past years.  Subglacial Lakes are highly favorable to influence the movement of ice sheets, having an impact on global sea level change.

This study was conducted at the Scott Polar Research Institute(SPRI) at the University of Cambridge which is located in the United Kingdom.  They used airborne radar measurements to reveal the lakes underneath this great ice sheet.  The lead author, Dr. Steven Palmer who was formerly of SPRI, and currently at the University of Exeter (which is also in the United Kingdom) said, ""Our results show that subglacial lakes exist in Greenland, and that they form an important part of the ice sheet's plumbing system.  Because the way in which water moves beneath ice sheets strongly affects ice flow speeds, improved understanding of these lakes will allow us to predict more accurately how the ice sheet will respond to anticipated future warning.""

These lakes are different than those detected under the Antarctic Ice sheets, hinting that these lakes may have formed in a different manner.  the researchers hypothesize that the recently discovered lakes are most likely fed by melting surface water dripping through the cracks in ice.  A surface lake settled nearby might also relinquish the subglacial lakes throughout warm summers.  This means that these lakes under the Greenland Ice Sheet a part of an open system and are connected to the surface, which is unlike the Antarctic lakes that are usually isolated ecosystems.

website: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131127130929.htmpicture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Greenland-ice_sheet_hg.jpg

Vast Freshwater Reserves Found Beneath the Oceans

Scientists have discovered massive amounts reserves of freshwater below the depths of the oceans.  This provides new opportunities fight off the reoccurring worldwide crisis.  A very recent study that was published December 5th in the international scientific journal nature, reveals that about 500,000 cubic kilometers of fresh water is buried deep below the seabed on continental shelves worldwide.
The water, which could possibly be used to eke out supplies throughout the world's burgeoning  coastal areas, which has been located off of Australia, China, South Africa, and North America.""The volume of this water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we've extracted from the Earth's sub-surface in the past century since 1900,"" says lead author Dr Vincent Post (pictured) of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) and the School of the Environment at Flinders University.These reserves have been forming over the past hundreds and thousands of years when on average the sea level was a lot lower than it is today, and when the coastline was also further out, Dr Post explains."So when it rained, the water would infiltrate into the ground and fill up the water table in areas that are nowadays under the sea."It happened all around the world, and when the sea level rose when ice caps started melting some 20,000 years ago, these areas were covered by the ocean.""

website:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131208085304.htm
picture:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131208085304.htm

Rogue Waves

Rogue waves are also known as freak waves.  They are quite large but also casual waves that can sink even large ships and ocean liners.  "In oceanography, they are more concisely defined as waves that are more than double the significant wave height (SWH), which is itself defined as the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record.Once thought to be only legendary, they are now known to be a natural ocean phenomenon, not rare,but rarely encountered." 

On June 23rd 2008, the Suwa Maru which was a fishing boat with 20 crew members;  sank in seemingly normal sea conditions in Cape Inubosaki.  Reports from investigators said that even though originally reported wave heights were between 2 and 3 meters (6.5 and 9.8 feet)  almost the size of a regulation basketball hoop.  However, the ship may have encountered unusual waves, probably twice, or three times the size of the waves originally reported.  These abnormal waves, sunk the ship in 10 minutes.      

"Using a hindcast wave simulation using a model driven by wind and ocean current, the authors find that at the time of the accident wave steepness increased and waves became long crested, creating a sea state favorable for freak wave occurrence."  The ship was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. With the heavy pressures from the rising speed of winds, the swell system grew exponentially, causing the wave to expand constantly .  This created the dangerously moving waters to create this freakish sea condition.

website:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128183927.htm

picture:  http://www.polarsurf.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/big-wave-boatsome----placid----ocean-photos---actually-rogue-waves-and-huge-waves-nv0p7kdc.jpg

Powering Australia with waves

Wave energy is moving along rapidly as a valuble  source of renewable energy to generate electricity.  With Australia's southern margin being identified by the World Energy Council as one of the world's most promising sites for wave-energy generation.  That is quite a statement.One minor problem for wave-energy developers, however, is that estimates in the past of wave-energy potential are based on the information in deep ocean water, while "wave-energy generation systems are typically positioned near to shore," says a physical oceanographer Mark Hemer who works with Australia's CSIRO Wealth for Oceans National research flagship.

Australia has been consistent with decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 60 percent of year 2000 levels by 2050. Although an economic analysis of wave generation in Australian waters hasn't been promptly carried out. Hemer states that wave energy offers a "massive resource" to aid the Australian Government's aim of producing 45,000 gigawatt-hours/year of a surplus of renewable energy before the year 2020. ""Convert 10 percent of available wave energy from a 1000-km stretch in this area to electricity, " Hemer says, and "the quota could be achieved by wave energy alone.""

website:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100817090758.htm

picture:  http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3282/2867779166_912fd6bdd1.jpg

North West Tidal Barrages Could Provide up to 5% of UK's electricity

Engineers from The University of Liverpool claim that building estuary barrages (just blocking off where the tide meets the stream) throughout the North West could help to provide up to 5% of the UK's electricity.  Researchers who are collaborating with Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory have been examining ways to create electricity from tidal sources of renewable energy in the Eastern Irish Sea.
The study showed that if four estuary barrages could be built along the Solway Firth, Morecambe Bay, in addition to the Mersey and Dee estuaries, this could have the capability to meet about 50% of the North West region's electricity needs.  The barrages would provide a solid defense against the sea, along with good flood alleviation by draining the estuary following massive and heavy rainstorms.  Electricity generation could also help to achieve the UK's C02 emission reduction targets.          

"Professor Richard Burrows, from the Maritime Environmental and Water Systems Research Group, in the University’s Department of Engineering, said: "“With concerns mounting over the UK’s future energy provision it will soon become paramount that all sources of renewable energy are fully developed. Unlike the wind, tides are absolutely predictable. The geographical location of the UK, and the seas that surround it, provide a great platform for marine renewable sources.""
website:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090325092203.htm

picture:  http://www.mythandthemurray.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Goolwa_Barrage.jpg

San Andreas Fault

The San Andreas Fault is a geological stretches to a length of approximately 800 miles (1287 kilometers) through California.  The fault is a right-lateral slip-fault that creates a boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate.  All of the land west of this fault along the Pacific Plate is moving slowly to the northwest while all of the land east of the fault is moving the opposite, southeast because of plate tectonics.

The rate of the movement is about 1/6th of an inch (.6 cm) per year.  The projected motion indicates that the Gulf of California will extend northward at the same time that the land west of the fault, including the Baja California peninsula along with California's coast slips past San Francisco.  It will then continue going northwestward as an island mass heading to the Aleutian Trench.  This is said to happen over a period of maybe twenty million years.

website:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/s/san_andreas_fault.htm
picture:  http://www.sanandreasfault.org/4020_A.jpg

Tsunamis

Tsunamis are a series of waves that sends surges of water onto a piece of land.  They can reach heights up to 100 feet.  These massive walls of water can destroy a huge destruction when they crash the shoreline.  These jaw-dropping waves are usually caused by underwater earthquakes within tectonic plate boundaries.  When the ocean floor at one of these boundaries rises or falls unexpectedly, it displaces the water above and shoots the on going waves which will then become a Tsunami.  Approximately 80% of Tsunamis occur with the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire" which is where many tectonic shifts create volcanoes and earthquakes normal.

Tsunamis can speed across the ocean at 500mph, which is just about as fast as a jet airplane.  If that pace is constant, it can make it across the entire Pacific in less than a day!  And because of their long wavelength's, Tsunamis lose very little energy throughout its course.  It is usually composed of multiple waves, called a wave train.  The best way to help defend a tsunami is an early warning that lets people reach higher ground.  "The Pacific Tsunami Warning System is a coalition of 26 nations headquartered in Hawaii.  It maintains a web of seismic equipment and water level gauges to identify tsunamis at sea.  Similar systems are proposed to protect coastal areas worldwide."

website http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-disasters/tsunami-profile/
picture:  www.youtube.com

The Tides

Tides are the cycle of the Earth's rising and falling ocean surface.  This is caused by the tidal forces of both the sun and moon acting upon the earth.  The tides cause drastic changes in depth throughout the sea.  They also produce oscillating currents which are also known as tidal streams.  Making prediction of the tides is essential for coastal navigation. "The strip of seashore that is submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide, the intertidal zone, is an important ecological product of ocean tides."  

The changing tides produced at a specific location on earth is the result of the Moon and Sun interacting with the Earth. "Though the gravitational force exerted by the Sun on the Earth is almost 200 times stronger than that exerted by the Moon, the tidal force produced by the Moon is about twice as strong as that produced by the Sun."  This is because the tidal force isn't necessarily related by the strength of a gravitational, but to its incline.  The field incline decreases with distance from the source more quickly than does the field strength.  The Sun is roughly 400 times further from the Earth than the Moon is.   The gradient of the Sun's field, along with the tidal force made by the sun is more weak than the Moon's. 
  
website:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/t/tide.htm
picture:  http://www.greenlaunches.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ocean_tides.jpg

The Gulf Stream

The Gulf stream which originates in Mexico, exits through the the straight of Florida, and then follows the eastern coastlines along with Newfoundland before crossing through the Atlantic Ocean.  The Gulf Stream splits into two at about at approximately 30 degrees west and and 40 degrees North.  The Northern stream crossing over to Northern Europe and the southern stream recirculating off the West coast of Africa.  This Gulf stream can also change climate over different parts of the current as well.

The Gulf Stream has a pretty big impact of the climate throughout the east coast of North America.  It influences the climate substantially from Florida to Newfoundland, along with the west coast of Europe.  However, there is some speculation that global warming can decrease or possibly shutdown thermohaline circulation which would reduce the North Atlantic Drift.  The time frame for this occurrence is not clear, but some estimates range from twenty to forty years, or 200-400 years.  Again it is not clear.  "This could trigger localised cooling in the North Atlantic and lead to cooling (or lesser warming) in that region, particularly affecting areas that are warmed by the North Atlantic Drift, such as Scandinavia and Great Britain" (Science Daily).  The chances of this happening is also not clear.  

website: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/g/gulf_stream.htm

picture:  http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/atlantic/img_topo1/gulf-stream2.jpg

Trophic Levels

The trophic level is the position in which an organism occupies the food chain.  The organism faces two fates: What will eat them and what will they eat.  It is a cycle in the ecosystem.  Everything is a prey and everything is a predator, just at different degrees.  A fish eats shrimp and other crustaceans, but seals eat the fish.  It is a continuing cycle throughout the ocean blue.  There is such a diverse amount of prey to feed on that losing one species of prey will not ruin the entire ecosystem.  No one predator is subject to to one species of prey.  The predator has adapted to consuming numerous types of prey because they know that that prey wont be around forever.  Its almost like the food we eat.  You don't want pizza every night right? you get sick of it.  Well its the same thing in the ocean except with sea creatures.

The food chain or the trophic levels are occupied by numerous species of sea life.  At the first level and second lie the plants like zooplankton and phytplankton.  The second level contains the zooplankton because it eats the phytoplanktobn.  In the trophic levels anything below you eats you.  So the third level is the crustaceans, and below them lie the fish, who eat the crustaceans.  The fifth level lies all the other animals that swim around the ocean, they eat anything above them depending on the animal.

website: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/t/trophic_level.htm
picture: www.sciencelearn.org.nz 

Marine Conservation

 Marine conservation is the study of preserving biological and physical marine resources and ecosystem functions.  Marine conservations count on numerous amounts of scientific principles derived from marine biology, oceanography, fisheries science, and demand for marine resources and marine law.  

Marine conservation, which is also known as marine resources conservation, is the protection and conservation of ecosystems in oceans or seas.  Ecosystems are where sea animals interact with one another.  It focuses on three key things.  The first is damaged caused by humans to the marine ecosystems.  The second is on renewing damaged marine ecosystems.  And the third is focusing on vulnerable and weak marine species.

Coral reefs are the backbone of the ecosystem.  They provide tremendous amounts of food, shelter, and protection of different kinds of sea creatures.  Coral reefs are also an important aspect of sustaining human life through serving as a valuable food source (fish, mollusks, etc).  They also serve as a marine space for eco-tourism that provides economic benefits.  Unfortunately the coral reefs are becoming degraded and are in dire need of conservation.  Human activities like pollution, overfishing, and destructive fishing practices.  Other factors of the digression are sedimentation and excessive amounts of CO2 emissions.

website: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/m/marine_conservation.htm
picture: http://www.solutions-site.org

Black holes in the ocean

According to researchers from the University of Miami and ETH Zurich, some of the world's largest oceans eddies are mathematically equivalent to the black holes in outer space.  However, these eddies are surrounded by such strong water paths that anything that goes in there will not escape.  Our climate is impacted by some of these huge eddies that can be up to 150km in diameter that rotate and drift across the ocean.

The number of eddies is currently reported to be on the rise in the Southern Ocean.   This will  transport salt and warm water up north.  Interestingly, this could moderate the negative impact of melting ice in a warming climate.  But scientists have not been able to quantify the impact so far, because the specific boundaries of these swirling water bodies have yet to be detected.

George Haller who is an oceanography professor at the University of Miami, has come up with a solution to this problem.  In a paper him and his co-workers published, they came up with a new mathematical technique to find water-transporting eddies with coherent boundaries.  The challenge will be finding such eddies to target coherent water islands in a turbulent ocean.

The overall movement and rotation of the fluid motion seems to be quizzical to people looking on the inside and out of an eddy.  Haller and a co-worker Beron-Vera were able to retain order in this mess by isolating coherent water islands from a order of satellite observations.  Haller and Beron-Vera were surprised to discover that such coherent eddies turned out to be mathematically equivalent to black holes.


website: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130923114111.htm
picture: http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/09/130923114111-large.jpg

Dead Zone

Dead zones are low-oxygen areas throughout the world's oceans.  These incidences have been studied by oceanographers since the 1970's.  They have been increasing ever since the oceanographers started studying them.  The dead zones are caused by eutrophication, which is excessive amounts of nutrients in different bodies of water.

This is usually due to the runoff from the land, which causes a voluminous growth of plant life.  All these plants need to go through photosynthesis, so they take the air all the fish breathe which causes more death of the animal life in oceans, lakes, and rivers.

Another problem with the low-oxygen levels is the decrease in the fish reproductive organ productivity.  It causes problems with the decreased reproductive organs, low egg counts, and lack of spawning.

website: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/d/dead_zone_(ecology).htm
picture: http://new.coolclassroom.org/files/discoveries/3/dead-zones_fish.jpg

Ocean acidification

Ocean acidification is the name of the continual decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans.  The pH levels measure how clean the oceans are.  This is caused by the increase of human activity.  In other words, its due to our increase in pollution.  

Between 1751 and 2004 surface ocean pH levels are estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14.  The land activity by humans has the combustion of fossil fuels have led to a new flow of CO2 into the atmosphere.  Some has gone up in the air been taken up by terrestrial plants, staying in the atmosphere, but some of it has also been going in the oceans causing it to be polluted.  This also leads to the decrease in the pH levels.



Website:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/o/ocean_acidification.htm
Picture:   www.co2science.org

Dolphins can be alert for 15 days straight!

Dolphins are very alert creatures.  They only sleep with one half of their brain, which makes them stay fully alert for long periods of time.  According to a research done by PLOS ONE, this trait makes dolphins stay alert for 15 days straight! 

Brian Branstetter from the National Marine Mammal Foundation and colleagues discovered that all dolphins can use their echolocation with pin point accuracy consistently for 15 days, locating different targets and monitoring their location.  Branstetter's researchers studied 2 dolphins; one male and one female.  Both were capable of this completing this task for 5 straight days.  The female in particular, accomplished additional tasks for a 15 day period.  But seeing how far they could go was not studied unfortunately.

The trait of sleeping with half of the brain (also called unihemispheric sleep) at a time is said to have evolved in dolphins so that they can surface for air even though they're half asleep.  This new research suggests that staying vigilant may also have played a key role in the evolution of the unique sleeping behavior dolphins possess. "These majestic beasts are true unwavering sentinels of the sea. The demands of ocean life on air breathing dolphins have led to incredible capabilities, one of which is the ability to continuously, perhaps indefinitely, maintain vigilant behavior through echolocation"" says Branstetter." (Science Daily.com)

Website:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121017181244.htm

 Picture:  http://www.follybeach.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Dolphin-face-1.jpg