The Gulf Stream current carries warm, salty water from the Gulf of Mexico northeastward. In the North Atlantic, this water cools and sinks and drifts southwestward, emerging centuries later in Keep reading
Tag: oceanography
Trapped in a Taylor Column
The world’s largest iceberg, A23a, is stuck. It’s not beached; there are a thousand meters or more of water beneath it. But thanks to a quirk of the Earth’s rotation, Keep reading
Turning the Beach Pink
Lab experiments and numerical simulations can only take us so far; sometimes there’s no substitute for getting out into the field. That’s why a beach in San Diego turned pink Keep reading
Streaks of Sea Ice
As summer approaches in the Southern Ocean, sea ice melts, but the process is not purely one-way. Temperatures in some locations are cold enough for some limited new freezing. The Keep reading
Where Wind Meets Water
That the wind causes ocean waves is obvious to anyone who has spent time near the water, but the details of that process remain fuzzy. Many of the explanations — Keep reading
Acidic Sea Spray
As waves crash and break, they generate a spray of droplets — known as aerosols — that make their way into the atmosphere. Researchers investigated the chemistry of these aerosol Keep reading
Following the Flow
In early December 2020, the world’s largest iceberg — roughly 135 km long by 44 km wide — was heading straight for South Georgia Island. Luckily for the island, iceberg Keep reading
Seismic Events Reveal Ocean Temperatures
Decades ago, researchers proposed sending sound waves through the ocean to measure its temperature. Although the technique worked, it ran into noise pollution issues, but now it’s back, using naturally-occurring Keep reading
Underwater Optical Illusions
On a hot day, it’s not unusual to catch a glimpse of a shimmering optical illusion over a hot road, but you probably wouldn’t expect to see the same thing 2,000 meters Keep reading
Breaking
As waves fold over and break, they trap air, creating bubbles of many sizes. The smallest of these bubbles can be only a few microns across and persist for long Keep reading