WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

12-16 December 2005

DataStreme Ocean will return for Spring 2006 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 16 January 2006. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Hawaii is TsunamiReady -- National Weather Service officials recently announced that Hawaii has become the first state in the nation to be classified as both TsunamiReady and StormReady as the result of the completion of a comprehensive plan that involves a set of warning and evacuation criteria involving natural disasters such as tsunamis and severe weather events. [NOAA News]
• Right whale to be untangled -- The NOAA Fisheries Service has assembled a team that will attempt to rescue a North Atlantic right whale that became tangled in rope and fishing gear off the South Carolina coast, pending favorable weather conditions. [NOAA News]
• High-tech aircraft tested for environmental research and disaster protection -- The NOAA Ocean Service Remote Sensing Division has successfully completed its first test of a high-altitude unmanned aircraft that is designed to make long-endurance flights to collect data needed for a variety of oceanic and atmospheric research projects, including marine sanctuary mapping, fisheries enforcement and climate modeling. [NOAA News]
• Epsilon finally fades -- Epsilon, the record 14th hurricane and 26th named tropical cyclone of the 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season, finally weakened from tropical storm status as it lost tropical characteristics when absorbed into a midlatitude weather system. [USA Today]
• Mapping tides under ice shelves -- Scientists at Ohio State University have produced a high resolution map of the ocean tides under two of Antarctic's large ice shelves using data obtained from the twin orbiting satellites that constitute the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center. [EurekAlert!]
• Higher global temperatures could have disastrous effects on ocean circulation -- A team of scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Princeton University, the University of Michigan and Wesleyan University recently reported that projected increases in global temperature associated with human activity could have a greater than even chance of shutting down the thermohaline circulation regime in the North Atlantic during the next two centuries, resulting in a significant change in climate favoring a colder northern hemisphere and a warmer Southern Hemisphere. [EurekAlert!]
• Ocean microbes are important -- The American Academy of Microbiology recently released a report entitled "Marine Microbial Diversity: The Key to Earth's Habitability" that states that microorganisms in the ocean have played an important role in maintaining and regulating the planetary biogeochemical cycles needed for survival of higher forms of life. [EurekAlert!]
• Immune capabilities of sea urchins studied -- Researchers at George Washington University have been investigating the immune mechanisms of the sea urchin with an eye toward understanding how previously unrecognized immune systems could function in humans. [EurekAlert!]
• Continued fossil fuel consumption could have profound effects -- Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported that the results of their simulations using a coupled climate and carbon cycle model indicate that continued use of fossil fuels at current rates could cause not only a 14.5 Fahrenheit increase in global temperature by 2300, but also increase the acidity of the ocean, reduce the ocean's ability to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide and deplete the polar sea ice. [EurekAlert!]
• Agreement made to cut pollution in Chesapeake Bay -- The governors of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania along with an official from the District of Columbia have signed an agreement to develop a regional education plan that would encourage farmers to make changes in feeding processes so as to reduce the amount of phosphorous and other pollutants in their animal's manure, thereby cutting the pollution of Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary. [US Water News Online]
• Monitoring the world glaciers --
  • Greenland glaciers shrinking -- A scientist from the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute reports that two of Greenland's largest glaciers have been receding at an increasingly fast pace, ranging from seven to nine miles per year. He voiced concern that the glaciers' retreat because of higher global temperatures could contribute to an estimated global rise in sea level. [ENN]
  • Alaskan glacier shrinks rapidly -- The associated director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado-Boulder reported that the tidewater Columbia Glacier near Valdez, AK was rapidly shrinking and discharging large quantities of ice into Prince William Sound. This glacier is reported to be North America's largest single glacial contributor to changes in sea level. [EurekAlert!]
• Modeling tropical weather patterns that could affect precipitation in the American West -- A mathematician at the University of California, Davis has developed a mathematical model of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, a 30 to 60-day periodic weather pattern in the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans that appear to influence the occurrence of rainfall and drought conditions across the western US. [University of California, Davis]
• 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.

Historical Events:

• 12 December 1966...A Greek passenger ferry foundered in heavy seas near Heraklion, Crete with the loss of 241 lives.
• 13 December 1577...Five ships and 164 men under the command of English seaman Francis Drake (later knighted) set sail from Plymouth, England, to embark on Drake's circumnavigation of the globe, the first by a British explorer. The journey took almost three years. (The History Channel)
• 13 December 1642...Dutch navigator Abel Janszoon Tasman became the first European explorer to sight the South Pacific island group now known as New Zealand. (The History Channel)
• 13 December 1816...The first US patent for a dry dock was issued to John Adamson of Boston, MA. (Today in Science History)
• 13 December 1879...The first federal fish-hatching steamer was launched at Wilmington, DE.
• 14 December 1287...Zuider Zee seawall in the Netherlands collapsed with the loss of over 50,000 lives. (Wikipedia)
• 14 December 1902...The British Cable Ship Silverton set sail from the San Francisco Bay Area to lay the first telephone cable between San Francisco and Honolulu. The project, which involved laying a cable across 2277 nautical miles, was completed by 1 January 1903 as the ship landed and the first test message sent the same day. (Today in Science History)
• 14 December 1988...The first transatlantic underwater fiber-optic cable went into service.
• 14 December 1991...A ferry, the Salem Express, carrying 569 passengers sank in the Red Sea off the coast of Safaga, Egypt, after hitting a coral reef. Over 460 people were believed drowned.
• 15 December 1488...Bartholomeus Diaz returned to Portugal after sailing round Cape of Good Hope.
• 15 December 1582...The Spanish Netherlands, Denmark and Norway adopted the Gregorian calendar.
• 15 December 1965...The third cyclone of the year killed another 10,000 people at the mouth of the Ganges River, Bangladesh.
• 15 December 1987...High seas to 12-foot heights caused in part by 30-mph winds associated with an arctic cold front capsized a fishing boat in the coastal waters near California's Channel Islands. The ship's cargo shifted in the high seas and strong winds. Three of the nine people onboard drowned. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 16 December 1897...The Argonaut, the first US submarine with an internal combustion engine, was demonstrated on the Patapsco River. Simon Lake invented and patented the engine. (Today in Science History)
• 16-17 December 1997...Torrential rain from Super Typhoon Paka fell on Guam with nearly 21 inches of rain observed at Tiyan before instrumentation failed two hours before Paka's eye passed to the south. Winds gusted to 171 mph before wind instruments failed. However, unofficial sources at Andersen Air Force Base believed that wind gusts may have reached 236.7 mph during the height of the storm. This super typhoon left major damage to 60 percent of the homes on Guam and caused 500 million dollars in damage. Fortunately, no one was killed and only two injuries were reported. (The Weather Doctor) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 16 December 2000...NASA announced that an ocean was most likely located beneath the icy surface of the Jovian moon Ganymede. (Wikipedia)
• 17-18 December 1832...The HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin onboard rounded Cape San Diego at Tierra del Fuego (the southern tip of South America) then sailed through the Strait of Le Maire, to anchor at Good Success Bay and visit Vurland.
• 17-18 December 1944...A typhoon with wind gusts to 142 mph in the Philippine Sea devastated Task Force 38 of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet northeast of Samar. Approximately 800 men were lost, the destroyers USS Hull, USS Monaghan and USS Spence sank, while 21 other ships were damaged, along with loss of 147 aircraft. The wind and sea tore life vests from the backs of some survivors. (Naval Historical Center) (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 18 December 1603...Admiral Steven van der Haghens fleet departed to East Indies.
• 18 December 1997...The 9.3-mile toll expressway, Tokyo Bay Aqualine bridge and tunnel spanning the narrowest gap of Tokyo Bay was opened to traffic the cities of Kawasaki and Kisarazu after 8-1/2 years of construction. The $17 billion project includes a 2.7-mile bridge, a 5.9-mile shield tunnel and two artificial islands. The tunnel is the world's longest undersea tunnel, running 197 feet deep under the surface of the water. (Today in Science History)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2005, The American Meteorological Society.