WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

9-13 January 2012

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2012 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 16 January 2012. All the current online website products, including updated issues of Weekly Ocean News, will continue to be available throughout the winter break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week, only two organized tropical cyclones were found across the Earth's major ocean basins. These two tropical cyclones were located in the South Indian Ocean basin. Cyclone Benilde, which had formed during the previous week, moved generally westward and intensified to become a category 2 tropical cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale over the New Year's Day weekend. However, during the first half of the past week, this cyclone weakened to a tropical depression before becoming a remnant low over the waters south of Diego Garcia. The NASA Hurricane Page. has additional information and satellite images on Cyclone Benilde.
  Over this past weekend, Tropical Storm 5 formed over the waters of the Mozambique Channel from a tropical low pressure system that had been designated System 99S. As of Sunday, movement of this minimal tropical storm was traveling to the southeast toward Madagascar. Additional information and satellite images showing System 99S in its early stages can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
• Ice starts forming on the Great Lakes -- An image obtained from data collected by the MODIS sensor on one of NASA's satellites early last week shows ice forming on some of the bays on western Lake Superior. The National Ice Center uses data from these satellites to produce daily analyses of ice coverage on the Great Lakes. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
• Lake-effect snow streamers spread across the Midwest -- Satellite images obtained last week from NASA's MODIS satellite and NOAA's GOES-13 satellite show several streaks of lake-effect snow that fell downwind of the Great Lakes as cold air moved southward across the relative warm lake water early last week. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
• Public comments sought on early restoration efforts of Gulf ecosystems -- The Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Trustees, a team from the US Departments of Commerce, Interior and Defense and the five Gulf Coast states, are currently seeking public comments to the official plans designed to restore Gulf of Mexico ecosystems following the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010. The public comments on eight proposed projects in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi are to be submitted by mid-February 2012. [NOAA's Ocean Service News]
• Tracking marine debris produced by the Japanese tsunami -- Several Federal agencies are joining forces to track the spread of debris produced by last spring's massive Japanese earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Using models that predict near surface winds and ocean currents, these agencies are also attempting to predict future movements of this debris. According to NOAA scientists, some of the debris could reach the Hawaiian Islands late this winter and the West Coast of the United States by 2013. An audio podcast was produced that includes a description of the movement of the debris by the Pacific Islands Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program. [NOAA's Ocean Service News]
• Arctic seawater is freshened along Canadian coast -- Researchers from the University of Washington and NASA have found that the waters of the Arctic Ocean bordering the Canadian and Alaskan coasts have become less salty as increasing amounts of freshwater from Canada and the US have entered the Arctic Ocean between 2005 and 2008 while the amount of freshwater had decreased along the Russian side of the Arctic. Changes in the salinity in the Arctic from melting Arctic sea ice could impact the global "ocean conveyor belt" that redistributes heat around the planet. [NASA JPL]
• Coral disease outbreaks hits Oahu reefs --Scientists from the University of Hawaii, the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and the US Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center have found that in March 2010, an outbreak of the disease called Montipora White Syndrome affected coral reefs in Kaneohe Bay on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. Since the beginning of this outbreak, several hundred colonies of coral in Kaneohe Bay have died. [School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa] NOTE: This site requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. See below.
• North Atlantic warming puts harp seals "on thin ice"-- A researcher at Duke University's Marine Lab warns that the warming of the North Atlantic during the last 32 years had reduced the winter sea ice cover in the harp seal breeding grounds along the coast of eastern Canada, resulting in sharply higher death rates among seal pups during the last several years.[LabSpaces]
• Burmese python invasion in Florida would not be thwarted by saltwater -- Researchers with the US Geological Society warn that their experiments indicate invasive Burmese python hatchlings from the Florida Everglades can withstand exposure to saltwater for sufficient time spans allowing them to expand their range through ocean and estuarine environments. [USGS Newsroom]
• Dangers at sea depend on occupation -- A professor at Norway's University of Stavanger has concluded that the Norwegians who fish on coastal fishing boats are nearly 25 times more likely to be killed than offshore workers, based upon data collected from the Norwegian Maritime Directorate. [University of Stavanger]
• Mercury assisted in Earth's massive extinction -- Scientists at the University of Calgary and Natural Resources Canada claim that while rapid climate change was a major contributing factor in the Earth's greatest extinction event that occurred 250 million years ago, an influx of mercury into the ecosystem also contributed to the extinction of nearly all marine species and a majority of those on land. The researchers believe that the mercury released from ancient volcanic activity during the late Permian oceans was nearly 30 times more than that released by current volcanic activity. [University of Calgary]
• A "rock clock" is calibrated -- Researchers at the United Kingdom's National Physical Laboratory and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre have been working on the calibration of the "argon-argon clock" in an attempt to increase the accuracy of dating Earth history back to the time of its formation 4.5 billion years ago. This "argon-argon clock" entails measuring the ratio of the amount of radioactive potassium in a sample of rock to the amount of its decay product, argon. [EurekAlert!]
• An All-Hazards Monitor -- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, drought, floods, marine weather, tsunamis, rip currents, Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and coral bleaching. [NOAAWatch]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 12 January 1836...Charles Darwin onboard the HMS Beagle reached Sydney, Australia.
• 12 January 1937...A plow for laying submarine cable was issued an U.S. patent. Designed to feed a cable at the same time that it would dig a trench in the ocean bed, the device could be used at depths up to one half mile. The first transatlantic cable of high-speed permalloy was buried on 14 June 1938. The inventors were Chester S. Lawton of Ridgewood, NJ and Capt. Melville H. Bloomer of Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Today in Science History).
• 12 January 1991...A major Atlantic storm intensified over the ocean waters off Newfoundland. Winds reached 105 mph at coastal Bonavista and ocean waves reached heights of 66 feet. A cargo ship sank 250 miles off the southeast Newfoundland coast. This storm was responsible for 33 deaths. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 13 January 1840...The 207-ft long side-wheel steamship Lexington burned and sank in Long Island Sound four miles off the northern coast of New York State's Long Island with the loss of 139 lives. Only four people survived. (Wikipedia)
• 15 January 1833...HMS Beagle anchored at Goeree Tierra del Fuego.

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2012, The American Meteorological Society.