Weekly Ocean News

WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

23-27 April 2007

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2007 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 27 August 2007. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

Environmental heroes honored -- In commemoration of Earth Day (held on Sunday, 22 April 2007), NOAA officials announced that ten people were the recipients of the 2007 NOAA Environmental Heroes Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations that volunteer their time to help NOAA accomplish its mission. This year's awardees include the Colorado State Climatologist who organized a volunteer precipitation network, an Icelandic lighthouse keeper who is a weather observer, an amateur radio operator who organized a weather warning system and the cartoonist who creates the Mark Trail cartoon strip that helps educate the public on weather and environmental hazards. [NOAA News]
"Maverick" waves are visualized in 3-D -- Three-dimensional imagery of the sea floor off the central California coast has been developed by The NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program and the California Ocean Protection Council that allows for the visualization of the famed "Mavericks" ocean waves, which batter the coast and are among the largest in the continental United States. [NOAA News]
Changes in climate could change wind shear and hurricane behavior -- Researchers at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science claim that their global climate model simulations of the climate across the tropical Atlantic and eastern Pacific basins during the 21st century would indicate a significant increase in the vertical wind shear (change in wind speed and/or direction with altitude) across these basins, thereby inhibiting development or intensification of tropical cyclone (especially hurricane) activity. [NOAA News] [Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science Research News]
Rapid uplift detected in Solomon Islands -- Images obtained from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) onboard a NASA satellite made in late March 2006 and in mid April 2007 show the effects of the recent earthquake and ensuing tsunami in the Solomon Islands in terms of the newly exposed reef on Ranongga Island, which rose due to the earthquake on 2 April 2007. [NASA Earth Observatory]
Egyptian sandstorm detected by satellite -- An image obtained from one of NASA's satellite early last week shows the layer of dust that had spread out over the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Suez due to a sandstorm over northern Egypt that had reduced visibility to several hundred meters, forcing the closing of airports and ship ports. [NOAA OSEI]
One billion people could be threatened by sea level surges -- A team of scientist led by the U.S. Geological Survey reported that more than one billion people who live in coastal regions could be in danger because of a sudden surge in sea level such as that caused by a tsunami or storm surge. [ENN]
A tsunami could have destroyed Atlantis -- A group of scientists claims that they have found evidence that a major tsunami rivaling that of the 2004 tsunami that decimated many coastal regions along the rim of the Indian Ocean could have destroyed the Minoan culture on the Mediterranean island of Crete approximately 3500 years ago, an event that may have sparked the legend of Atlantis. This tsunami may have been caused by a nearby violent volcanic eruption. [BBC News]
Deep sea drilling to study earthquake zone -- The Integrated Ocean Drilling Program is coordinating the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment, a 10-year project that will drill into an earthquake zone off the coast of Japan to get a better understanding of processes that have produced major earthquakes and tsunamis. [BBC News]
A near-record low Arctic sea ice cover forecast for this summer -- Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder are forecasting a one in three chance that the minimum summer extent of sea ice across the Arctic basin in September 2007 could be an all-time record low over the period of observations. [University of Colorado]
Under-ice observatories to study Arctic changes -- An instrumented package, called the "Ice Tethered Profiler System", designed and implemented by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will be used to measure water temperature and salinity with depth in the Arctic Ocean as it ascends and descends on a mooring line tethered under the ice near the North Pole. [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution]
Scientists head for North Pole to get "ground truth" for satellite -- An international team of scientists in aircraft deployed from Norway and two polar explorers on foot will depart for the North Pole to collect data that will serve as validation or "ground truth" for an European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 mission satellite to be launched that would continually monitor marine and land ice thickness in the polar latitudes. [ESA]
A "black smoker" discovered off Costa Rica -- Scientists from Duke University, the Universities of New Hampshire and South Carolina, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on an expedition in the eastern Pacific off the coast of Costa Rica discovered a new "black smoker," an undersea hot-springs chimney spewing iron-rich water at depth of 8500 feet. They also found some unusual jellyfish near this smoker that was named the Medusa Hydrothermal Vent Field. [EurekAlert!] [EurekAlert!]
Insurance rates remain high following 2005 hurricane season -- With some exceptions, many homeowners in disaster-prone areas across the country continue to find home insurance rates remaining relatively high after the devastation wrought by several major Gulf hurricanes during the 2005 hurricane season. [USA Today]
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:

23 April 1924...A tube transmitter for radio fog-signal stations, developed to take the place of the spark transmitters in use, was placed in service on the Ambrose Channel Lightship and proved successful. (USCG Historian's Office)
24 April 1884...USS Thetis, Bear, and Alert sailed from New York to search for Greeley expedition lost in the Arctic. (Naval Historical Center)
24 April 1928...The fathometer was patented by Herbert Grove Dorsey (No. 1,667,540). The invention measured underwater depths by using a series of electrical sounds and light signals. (Today in Science History)
25 April 1859...Ground was broken at Port Said, Egypt for the Suez Canal, an artificial waterway that was to cross the isthmus of Suez to connect the Mediterranean and the Red seas. (The History Channel)
25 April 1959...With the first ocean-going ships passing through locks along the St. Lawrence River, the St. Lawrence Seaway was officially opened to shipping, serving as the international waterway connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The official dedication of the Seaway was on 26 June 1959. (Wikipedia)
27 April 1521...The Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives during a tribal skirmish on Mactan Island in the Philippines after completing nearly three-quarters of a trip around the world. One of his ships, the Victoria, under the command of the Basque navigator Juan Sebastiýn de Elcano, continued west to arrive at Seville, Spain on 9 September 1522, the first ship to circumnavigate the globe. (The History Channel)
28 April 1947...Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl and five others set out in a balsa wood craft known as Kon Tiki to prove that Peruvian Indians could have settled in Polynesia. The trip took 101 days.
29 April 1770...The British explorer, Captain James Cook, arrived at and named Botany Bay, Australia. (Wikipedia)