27-31 December 2004

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2005 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 17 January 2005. All the current online homepage products will continue to be available throughout the break period.

• Tsunamis responsible for deaths of thousands -- A major 8.9-magnitude earthquake approximately 100 miles off the western coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra generated several large tsunamis early Sunday that were responsible for the deaths of nearly 10,0000 people, with Sri Lanka and India especially hard hit. [CNN]
• Cabinet-level committee proposed for ocean policies-- President George W. Bush recently created a Cabinet-level committee that is intended to oversee national policies concerning the oceans and the Great Lakes. [ENN]
• Satellites designed to measure ocean color help guide ship-- Instruments on board the European Space Agency's (ESA) Envisat and NASA's polar orbiting satellites that are designed to monitor the daily variations in the color of the near-surface layers of the ocean were also used to guide the movements of a research vessel participating the BIOSOPE (Biogeochemistry and Optics South Pacific Experiment) program. [ESA]
• Whale bone damage linked to the bends -- Scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reported that bone lesions found on the skeletons of sperm whales appear to be associated with the cumulative damage to tissue from nitrogen bubbles forming when the animals rise to the surface. [EurekAlert!]
• Hurricane induced ocean motions are temporary relief for reefs -- Scientists at Harbor Branch have discovered that the violent motions of the oceans caused by the recent hurricanes have scoured some of the harmful seaweed from the coral reefs off Florida, providing temporary relief to these reefs from the smothering effects of the seaweed. [EurekAlert!]
• Drill holes in shells help document a catastrophic event in the western Atlantic -- A geologist at the University of California at Davis recently reported that his inspection of the drill hole patterns made by marine snails on shells indicate a possible catastrophic event approximately 2 million years ago in the western North Atlantic that caused mass extinctions and changed the competitive balance in the western North Atlantic Ocean. [EurekAlert!]
• Australian research agency's work leads to seafloor minerals initiative-- A massive 20-year long research effort conducted by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation on the ocean floor of the southwest Pacific Ocean has led to a commercial initiative by a mining company that would extract new seafloor minerals. [CSIRO]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes-- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 27 December 1831...The HMS Beagle, along with the 22-year old British naturalist Charles Darwin, set sail from Plymouth, England on a five-year expedition of the southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Based upon his study of the flora and fauna of such places as the Galapagos Islands, he developed his famous theory of evolution that was described in his 1859 work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. (The History Channel)
• 27 December 1965...The BP oil rig Sea Gem capsized in the North Sea, with the loss of 13 lives.
• 28 December 1857...The light was first illuminated in the Cape Flattery Lighthouse, located on Washington State's Tatoosh Island at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. "Because of Indian trouble it was necessary to build a blockhouse on Tatoosh Island before even commencing the construction of the lighthouse. Twenty muskets were stored in the blockhouse, and then the lighthouse work began." (USCG Historian's Office)
• 28 December 1903...An Executive Order extended the jurisdiction of the Lighthouse Service to the non-contiguous territory of the Hawaiian Islands. (USCG Historian's Office)
• 28 December 1908...An early morning earthquake under the Straits of Messina leveled cities in Sicily and southern mainland Italy, as well as producing a tsunami with 40-foot waves that inundated coastal communities. This earthquake, estimated to by a magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale, and the resulting tsunami killed an estimated 100,000 people. This earthquake is Long stretches of coastline sunk into the Messina Straits and disappeared from view. A steady rain also added to the woes of the survivors. (The History Channel)
• 29 December 1897...Congress prohibited the killing of fur seals in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 30 December 1972...The 86-foot high wave measured by the ship Weather Reporter was the world's highest measured wave. The wave was measured in the North Atlantic Ocean at 59 degrees North latitude and 19 degrees West longitude. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 1 January1850...The lamp was lit at the first iron pile lighthouse in the U.S. built on Minot's Ledge, just outside the Boston (MA) Harbor. The Minot's Ledge Light, the first lighthouse in the U.S. to be exposed to the ocean's full fury, was swept away in a great gale on 16 April 1851. (Today in Science)
• 1 January 1903...The first message telegraphed on the transpacific cable was sent from Honolulu, Hawaii to President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, DC. The Cable Ship Silvertown began laying the 2620-mile long cable on 14 December 1902 when it left San Francisco, CA and it completed the project following its arrival at Oahu's Waikiki on 26 December. The cable now lies abandoned on the bottom of the Pacific after being abandoned in November 1951. (Today in Science)
• 1 January 1954...The "Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1948" commonly known as the "Revised International Rules of the Road" became law. These were a result of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea, 1948. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 1 January 1958...The U.S. Coast Guard ceased listening continuously for distress calls on 2670 kilocycles. Although the countries of the world had agreed at the Atlantic City Convention of the International Telecommunication Union in 1947 to use 2182 kilocycles for international maritime mobile radiotelephone calling and distress, the U.S. Coast Guard had continued listening on the old frequency until the public had had sufficient time to change to the new one. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
• 1 January 1959...The U.S. Naval Observatory introduced the system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam atomic oscillators. This measurement has been adopted as standard by the International Committee on Weights and Measures. (Naval Historical Center)
• 1 January 1987...A winter storm brought rain, snow and high winds to the Southern and Middle Atlantic Coast Region. The storm, which occurred in a period of unusually high astronomical tides, produced a tide of 9.4 feet at Myrtle Beach, SC (their highest since Hurricane Hazel in 1954) which caused a total of 25 million dollars damage in South Carolina. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 1 January 1997...Two 12-foot waves generated by an intense Pacific storm swept 27 people into the Pacific Ocean from the King Harbor Breakwater at Redondo Beach, CA. All survived the ordeal. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 2 January 1955...Hurricane Alice battered the Leeward Islands with sustained winds of 85 mph on this day. Alice was upgraded as a full tropical system on 31 December 1954, making Alice the latest and earliest hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. (Intellicast)
• 2 January 1993...Cyclone Kina battered Fiji with wind gusts to 130 mph and heavy rain. Up to 21.65 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, resulting in the worst flooding in 60 years. Twenty-three people were killed and damage was estimated to be in excess of 547 million US dollars. (Accord's Weather Calendar)

Return to DataStreme Ocean Homepage

URL: DSOcean/news.html

Prepared by AMS DSOcean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2004, The American Meteorological Society.