Weekly Ocean News

WEEK TWO: 10-14 September 2012

Items of Interest:

Typical peak in the Atlantic hurricane season reached -- The historic or statistical annual peak in the Atlantic hurricane season will occur early this week (10-12 September), as determined as the date during the entire season with most frequent number of named tropical cyclones (tropical storms and hurricanes), based upon over 100 years of record. This date corresponds closely with the time of peak sea-surface temperatures across those sections of the North Atlantic considered hurricane-breeding areas. [NWS National Hurricane Center] [Note: So far this Atlantic hurricane season, which commenced on 1 June 2012, twelve tropical cyclones have reached tropical storm or hurricane status. Of these thirteen named tropical cyclones, seven (Chris, Ernesto, Gordon, Isaac, Kirk, Leslie and Michael) have become hurricanes. EJH]
Remote sensing of the oceans by satellites -- Please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth for a description of how oceanographers have employed orbiting satellites as observation platforms to make remote observations of the world's oceans.
Celebrate International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer -- The United Nations Environment Programme has proclaimed that this upcoming Sunday 16 September 2012 to be the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, a commemoration of the day in 1987 when nations commenced the signing of the Montreal Protocol to limit and eventually ban ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other chlorine and bromine-containing compounds. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the event. The theme for Ozone Day 2012 is "Protecting our atmosphere for generations to come." [United Nations Environment Programme: Ozone Secretariat]
Volunteers invited to the International Coastal Cleanup -- NOAA is encouraging volunteers to sign up to help pick up marine debris from coastal areas as part of the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) that is scheduled for next Saturday, 15 September 2012. [NOAA Marine Debris Program]

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the tropics --- During the last week, several named tropical cyclones (low pressure systems that form over tropical ocean waters, with near surface maximum sustained winds that intensify to tropical storm or hurricane force status) traveled across the tropical ocean basins in the North Atlantic and the North Pacific:

In the North Atlantic basin, Tropical Storm Leslie traveled continued to travel toward the west-northwest over the Atlantic waters to the east of the Windward Islands early last week. Turning toward the north by midweek, this tropical storm intensified to become the sixth hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season. This category one hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale continued slowly north toward Bermuda late last week, before weakening to a tropical storm on Friday. Tropical Storm Leslie was forecast to pass Bermuda and travel to the north-northeast toward Newfoundland early this new week. Last Friday, NASA deployed its Global Hawk robotic aircraft to make atmospheric measurements of Hurricane Leslie as part of its Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission. [NASA HS3 Hurricane Mission] See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information on Tropical Storm Leslie.
Early last week, a tropical depression over the central tropical North Atlantic southwest of the Azores strengthened to become a Tropical Storm Michael. By late week, this tropical storm intensified to become the seventh Atlantic hurricane of 2012. On Thursday, maximum sustained surface winds surrounding the center of Hurricane Michael strengthened to 115 mph, making it a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale as it took a somewhat erratic path toward the north across the central North Atlantic. Reaching category 3 status, Hurricane Michael became the first major hurricane in the North Atlantic Basin in 2012. Over this past weekend, Hurricane Michael was traveling toward the northwest, well away from landmasses. Additional information on Hurricane Michael, together with satellite images, are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.

In the eastern North Pacific, Hurricane Ileana, a minimal category one hurricane, traveled westward away from the tip of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula over the Labor Day weekend before weakening to a tropical storm and then dissipating. Satellite imagery and additional information on Hurricane Ileana appears on the NASA Hurricane Page.
Another weak tropical storm formed from a tropical depression well off the western coast of Mexico over the Labor Day weekend. Becoming Tropical Storm John as it traveled to the northwest on Monday, this tenth named tropical cyclone of 2012 in the eastern North Pacific weakened to a tropical depression within 12 hours before becoming a remnant low. See the NASA Hurricane Page for more information and satellite images on Tropical Storm John.

Hurricanes are no strangers to central Gulf Coast residents -- Motivated by the landfall of Hurricane Isaac over one week ago, the NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory produced a map showing the plotted paths of 140 tropical cyclones, with intensifies ranging from tropical depressions to category 5 hurricanes (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) that have passed across the states of Louisiana and Mississippi between 1850 and 2011. The hurricane track plots were from data available from the NOAA Coastal Services Center. [NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory]
Whale communications decreases due to underwater noise in New England marine sanctuary -- A team of scientists from NOAA, Cornell University and Marine Acoustics, Inc. recently reported that high levels of background noise especially from ships have reduced the ability of endangered North Atlantic right whales to communicate with each other in the waters of the Stellwagen Bank National Sanctuary, which is located off the New England coast. [NOAA Ocean Service]
Weekly harmful algal bloom forecasts issued for Lake Erie -- NOAA is now issuing weekly forecasts of harmful algal bloom (HAB) conditions for Lake Erie during the current bloom season, which extends from June through October. These forecasts advise water utilities, anglers, and others about the presence or anticipated presence of a HAB that could harm fish, humans and the environment. Data for these forecasts come are obtained from the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) sensor on board NASA's Aqua satellite. [NOAA Ocean Service]
Rebuilding northern California fisheries gets assist from veterans -- NOAA is funding a project that will be administered by the California Conservation Corps and California's Department of Fish and Game in which military veterans will be offered training and employment in habitat restoration and fisheries monitoring in northern California. [NOAA News]
Voyage commences to explore link between sea saltiness and climate -- A research voyage embarked last week from Woods Hole, MA to commence that will deploy a variety of instruments in different regions of the oceans, including the saltiest spot in the North Atlantic to obtain a detailed three-dimensional picture of how the salt content or salinity of the ocean's upper layers varies and how these variations are related to global rainfall patterns. This research voyage, known as the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS), is sponsored by NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation the data collected will be used to help calibrate the salinity measurements made by NASA's Aquarius/SAC-D (Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas-D) spacecraft since August 2011. [NASA Earth Science News Team]
Major improvements made to position and elevation data system -- The NOAA National Ocean Service's National Geodetic Survey recently unveiled several updates to their National Spatial Reference System (NSRS), the nationwide network of interconnected survey points used for transportation, mapping, and charting. These new improvements will permit users of NSRS to have access to better positioning and elevation data. In addition to two new models of the geoid that describes the "shape" of the mean sea level around the globe, the new release includes new elevation data for the Gulf Coast from east Texas to the Florida Panhandle, a region that is currently sinking. [NOAA National Ocean Service]
International Great Lakes environmental pact renewed -- Last Friday, the US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and Canada's Minister of the Environment renewed the 40-year old Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement that pledged to increase efforts to reduce pollution, cleanse contaminated sites and prevent exotic species in the waters of the North American Great Lakes shared by the two nations. This new version of the agreement also includes sections on emerging challenges that include climate change, loss of wildlife habitat and the appearance of new waves of invasive species. [Detroit Free Press]
New world depth record set for scientific ocean drilling -- The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology recently announced that the scientific deep sea drilling vessel Chikyu set a new world record for scientific ocean drilling when it drilled down to collect rock samples at depths of more than 2111 meters below the sea floor in the northwest Pacific Ocean off Japan's Shimokita Peninsula. This drilling record was made as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), an international marine research program that help provide insights into deep marine life associated with a hydrocarbon system in the well below the ocean floor. [Integrated Ocean Drilling Program]
Ancient bottom-dwelling creature studied -- Scientists from the University of Buffalo and colleagues from Canada and Germany have identified a tiny sea creature called Rhabdopleura compacta zooid that had lived on the ocean bottom for more than 500 million years and built colonies from collagen they secreted onto clam shells. This species appears to have outlasted many other species. [University of Buffalo News Center]
Deep-sea crabs use UV vision for survival -- A Duke University biologist and her colleagues report that deep-sea crabs use their ultraviolet (UV) and blue light sensitivity to feed on plankton that glow blue at depths to a half-mile below the ocean surface and avoid consumption of toxic corals that have a bioluminesce that produces a blue-green to green color. [Duke Today]
Destruction of coastal habitats could increase greenhouse gas release -- According to a recent study led by scientists from Duke University, destruction of coastal habitats globally could release as much as one billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere annually, which would be ten times greater than previous estimates. When coastal wetlands are drained and destroyed, the sediment layers release into the atmosphere "blue carbon" or carbon that had been sequestered by the coastal-marine ecosystems. [Nicholas Institute, Duke University]
Sea otters could help fight global warming -- Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz claim that a sea otters that have an appetite for sea urchins appear to have a sufficiently large population that could keep the number of sea urchins in check and allow kelp forests to prosper and sequester large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The researchers note that the spreading kelp could fix twelve times the amount of carbon dioxide than if the population of sea urchins ran rampant. [University of California, Santa Cruz]
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.

Concept of the Week: The Birth of Surtsey, A Volcanic Island
In early November 1963, cod fishers plying the waters of the North Atlantic south of Iceland observed what appeared to be smoke or steam emanating from the distant ocean surface. They were witnessing the beginnings of a volcanic eruption that ultimately would give birth to a new island later named Surtsey after Surtur, the fire giant of Norse mythology. Surtsey is located at 63.4 degrees N, 20.3 degrees W or 33 km (20 mi) south of the coast of Iceland. Volcanic activity was nothing new to the fishers who lived on the nearby volcanic Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar). These islands as well as the main island of Iceland straddle the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary where hot molten lava wells up from the Earth's mantle, cools and solidifies into new oceanic crust.

Eruptions that produced Surtsey began on the ocean floor, some 130 m (427 ft) below sea level. The accumulating lava, cinders, and ash first emerged from the sea on 15 November 1963. Over the next 3.5 years, episodic eruptions built an island that eventually covered 2.5 square km (1 square mi) and attained a maximum elevation of 171 m (560 ft) above sea level. The initial eruptions were explosive as hot magma interacted with cold seawater producing dark jets of ash and steam that shot up to 200 m (656 ft) above two main volcanic vents. At this time, clouds of ash and steam rose into the atmosphere to altitudes perhaps as great as 10 km (6.2 mi). Subsequent eruptions were much more peaceful, consisting of quiescent flows of lava. When the eruptions ceased in early June 1967, a cubic kilometer of ash and lava had built up on the ocean floor with 9% of this volcanic material above sea level.

No volcanic activity has occurred on Surtsey since 1967 and geologists consider the volcanic island to be extinct with little risk of future eruptions. Nonetheless, Surtsey remains off limits to visitors except for scientists who obtain permission from the Icelandic government. The island offers scientists a unique opportunity to study not only the geology but also the establishment of plants and animals on the island, a process known as ecological succession. For example, by 1987, some 25 species of higher plants were growing on the initially barren island and 20 species of birds were nesting there.

Unless volcanic activity begins anew, the future is not bright for Surtsey. Some geologists predict that in a hundred years or so the island will be reduced to scattered stacks of rock. The island is composed of basaltic rock that is particularly vulnerable to weathering and erosion, ocean waves are eroding its shores, and the island is gradually sinking into the sea. Scientists reported a total subsidence of about 1.1 m (3.6 ft) between 1967 and 1991. Compaction of the volcanic material and the underlying sea-floor sediments are likely causes of the subsidence. For NASA topographical images of Surtsey, go to http://denali.gsfc.nasa.gov/research/garvin/surtsey.html . These images were obtained using a scanning airborne laser altimeter.

Concept of the Week: Questions

The volcanism responsible for the formation of Surtsey was associated with a [(divergent)(convergent)] tectonic plate boundary.
At present on Surtsey, erosive forces [(are)(are not)] prevailing over volcanic activity.

Historical Events

10 September 1919...A hurricane struck the Florida Keys drowning more than 500 persons. (David Ludlum)
10 September 1965...Hurricane Betsy slammed Louisiana with wind gusting to 130 mph at Houma, resulting in 58 deaths and over 17,500 injured. The storm surge and flooding from torrential rains made Betsy the first billion-dollar hurricane with losses exceeding $1.4 billion.
11 September 1961...Very large and slow moving Hurricane Carla made landfall near Port Lavaca, TX. Carla battered the central Texas coast with wind gusts to 175 mph, and up to 16 inches of rain, and spawned a vicious tornado (F4 on the Fujita tornado intensity scale) which swept across Galveston Island killing eight persons and destroying 200 buildings. A storm surge of up to 18.5 feet inundated coastal areas and Bay City was deluged with 17.1 inches of rain. The hurricane claimed 45 lives, and caused $300 million in damage. The remnants of Carla produced heavy rain in the Lower Missouri Valley and southern sections of the Upper Great Lakes Region. (David Ludlum) (Storm Data) (Intellicast)
11 September 1992...Hurricane Iniki, the third most damaging hurricane in US history, hit the Hawaiian Islands of Kauai and Oahu. Six people died as a result of the hurricane.
12 September 1775...The Independence Hurricane caught many fishing boats on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland killing 4000 seamen, most from Britain and Ireland. (The Weather Doctor)
12 September 1857...The S.S. Central America sank while in the midst of a hurricane off the North Carolina coast after beginning to take on water the previous day (11^th). Approximately 400 people onboard were lost, the greatest single loss from a commercial ship due to a hurricane. (Accord Weather Calendar)
12 September 1960...Hurricane Donna made landfall on central Long Island and then tracked across New England. Wind gusts reached 140 mph at the Blue Hills Observatory in Milton, MA and 130 mph at Block Island, RI. MacDowell Dam in New Hampshire recorded 7.25 inches of rain. Although a record tide of 6.1 feet occurred at the Battery in New York City, elsewhere fortunately the storm did not make landfall at the high tides so its effects were minimized. This was the first hurricane to affect every point along the East Coast from Key West, FL to Caribou, ME. (Intellicast)
12 September 1979...Hurricane Frederick smashed into the Mobile Bay area of Alabama packing 132-mph winds. Wind gusts to 145 mph were reported as the eye of the hurricane moved over Dauphin Island, AL, just west of Mobile. Frederick produced a fifteen-foot storm surge near the mouth of Mobile Bay. Winds gusted to hurricane force at Meridian, MS although the city is 140 miles inland. The hurricane was responsible for five fatalities and was the costliest in U.S. history to date causing $2.3 billion in damage. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
13-16 September 2004...Hurricane Ivan affected coastal Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle, with landfall near Gulf Shores, AL early on the 16th. Before breaking loose of its mooring, a buoy just south of the Alabama coastal waters reported a peak wave height of 52 feet on the 15th. (Accord Weather Guide Calendar)
14 September 1716...The Boston Light, the first lighthouse in America, was first lighted just before sunset. This light was located on Little Brewster Island to mark the entrance to Boston Harbor and guide ships past treacherous rocks. This original light was blown up by the British in 1776, rebuilt in 1783, and is currently the last staffed station in the U.S. (Today in Science History)
15 September 1752...A great hurricane produced a tide (storm surge )along the South Carolina coast that nearly inundated downtown Charleston. However, just before the surge reached the city, a shift in the wind caused the water level to drop five feet in ten minutes. (David Ludlum)
16 September 1928...Hurricane San Felipe, a monster hurricane, which left 600 dead in Guadeloupe and 300 dead in Puerto Rico, struck West Palm Beach, FL causing enormous damage, and then headed for Lake Okeechobee. Peak winds were near 150 mph. The high winds produced storm waves that breached the eastern dike on Lake Okeechobee, inundating flat farmland. When the storm was over, the lake covered an area the size of the state of Delaware, and beneath its waters were 1836 victims. The only survivors were those who reached large hotels for safety, and a group of fifty people who got onto a raft to take their chances out in the middle of the lake. (David Ludlum) (Intellicast)
16 September 1988...Hurricane Gilbert made landfall 120 miles south of Brownsville, TX in Mexico during the early evening. Winds gusted to 61 mph at Brownsville, and reached 82 mph at Padre Island. Six-foot tides eroded three to four feet of beach along the Lower Texas Coast, leaving the waterline seventy-five feet farther inland. Rainfall totals ranged up to 8.71 in. at Lamark, TX. Gilbert caused $3 million in property damage along the Lower Texas Coast, but less than a million dollars damage along the Middle Texas Coast. During its life span, Gilbert established an all-time record for the Western Hemisphere with a sea-level barometric pressure reading of 26.13 inches (888 millibars). Winds approached 200 mph, with higher gusts. Gilbert devastated Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data) (The Weather Channel)