Weekly Ocean News

DATASTREME OCEAN WEEK EIGHT: 23-27 March 2009

Ocean in the News:

Eye on the Tropics Tropical Cyclone Ilsa developed during the middle of last week over the eastern South Indian Ocean to the north of Learmonth, Northwestern Australia. During the late week, this cyclone developed into a major tropical cyclone, reaching category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. As of Sunday (local time), Ilsa was traveling to the west and showing some signs of weakening. A MODIS image obtained from NASA's Terra satellite shows a classic cloud pattern surrounding Tropical Cyclone Isla near the end of last week shortly after the cyclone began weakening. [NASA Earth Observatory] [Editor's note: The clouds appear to circulate in a clockwise direction around this Southern Hemisphere cyclone, opposite the circulation around those cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere. EJH] Additional information on Tropical Cyclone Ilsa can be found on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the South Pacific basin, Tropical Cyclone Ken developed early last week southwest of the island of Rarotonga. However, this system only reached tropical storm intensity and was short-lived, dissipating after two days. Additional information can be obtained from the NASA Hurricane Page.
Hurricane preparedness message to be taken to our southern neighbors -- During this upcoming week (23-28 March 2009). NOAA and the U.S. Air Force Reserve will host a series of public events this coming week of 23-29 March 2008 in five coastal communities from Mexico eastward across the Caribbean to the Bahamas and Puerto Rico in an attempt to urge residents to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season. [NOAA News]
Tsunami Awareness Week in Alaska -- The Governor of Alaska, along with NOAA, has proclaimed this coming week (22-28 March 2009) as Tsunami Awareness Week in Alaska. This start of this week coincides with the 45^th anniversary of the series of devastating tsunamis that struck southeastern Alaska following several earthquakes. [Governor's Office for State of Alaska]
Alaskan community is ready for tsunamis and severe weather -- NOAA's National Weather Service recently declared that Yakutat along the coast of southeastern Alaska has earned TsunamiReady™ and StormReady® designations following development of compressive communication and evacuation plans designed to help local emergency management officials protect citizens and handle tsunami and severe weather events. [NOAA News]
Learning about estuaries using an online game -- A new educational web-based game called "WaterLife: Where Rivers Meet the Sea" was unveiled last week by NOAA's National Ocean Service as a means of providing science instruction on estuaries to middle school students at the fourth through seventh grade level through a series of online challenges and animations. [NOAA News]
Historic marine sanctuary seeks youth participation -- Officials with NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary are actively seeking high school aged young people to provide input to its advisory council and superintendent on ocean conservation issues primarily for this sanctuary off North Carolina's Outer Banks that is the final resting place of the USS Monitor, the historic Civil War ironclad that sank in a storm. The officials also would like to find the next generation's views on ocean issues. [NOAA News]
Arctic sea ice reaches a seasonal maximum -- An image obtained from data collected by the AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System) sensor on NASA’s Aqua satellite a week before the Northern Hemisphere's spring equinox shows the near maximum seasonal extent of the sea ice across the Arctic Ocean. [NASA Earth Observatory]
European satellite launched to measure gravity fields, oceans and climate -- Early last week, the European Space Agency launched its GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite, which will map the Earth's gravity field in detail as part of the Agency's the Living Planet Programme and provide information of global ocean currents and ultimately, climate variations from ocean surface topography. [EurekAlert!]. By the end of the week, the Agency announced that the satellite successfully completed its early orbit tests and some of the first data from the satellite having been received. [ESA]
Arctic remains unprepared for offshore oil spills -- A new report prepared by the World Wildlife Fund claims that on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound, governments and industry in nations surrounding the Arctic basin remain unable to effectively manage a large oil spill at a time when new offshore oil development has commenced. [EurekAlert!]
Searching for ice shelf melting with a robot sub -- A robot submarine called Autosub that was developed and built by the United Kingdom's National Oceanography Centre has successfully completed a six-mission campaign as it traveled at depths of 1000 meters for a distance of approximately 600 km under the Pine Island Glacier, a floating extension of the West Antarctic ice sheet to determine the extent of how much the underside of this ice sheet has been thinning through the melting process in recent decades. [EurekAlert!]
Assessing the effects of climate-related changes on the Antarctic Peninsula -- Researchers participating in the National Science Foundation's LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) program recently reported that satellite data shows rapid changes in climate on the Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding ocean waters have caused in microscopic phytoplankton at the base of the region's food chain, resulting in wholesale changes in the regional ecosystem. [EurekAlert!]
Antarctic ice sheet stability studied -- A scientific team from five nations recently reported their research on a 4100 foot sedimentary rock core obtained from beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf during the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) Project, the first project of the ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing) research program. This record permitted scientists to reconstruct the climate record for the West Antarctic ice sheet back through the last 5 million years. Several climatologists noted that the ice has changed rapidly in the past, influenced primarily by ocean temperatures near Antarctica. [EurekAlert!] Their research indicates that a slight rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide would affect the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with any substantial melting of the ice sheet causing a rise in global sea levels. [EurekAlert!]
Seafloor seismometer added to California's earthquake network -- A new 32-mile long fiber optics cable has been laid in California's Monterey Bay connecting a seafloor seismic station with the University of California, Berkeley's land-based seismic network to provide expanded real-time monitoring of the San Andreas Fault that runs through central and northern California and the neighboring North Pacific. [University of California, Berkeley News]
Climate-induced sea level rise poses a threat to the Big Apple -- Researchers at Florida State University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory report that their analysis of output statistics from ten climate models indicates that projected increases in global temperature could cause a rise in sea level along the coast of the Northeastern States at a rate nearly twice as fast as global sea levels, putting the New York City metropolitan area at great risk to damage from storm surge associated with hurricanes and winter storms. [EurekAlert!]
Global feedback involves microscopic diatoms -- Research conducted at Michigan State University suggests that microscopic diatoms, a major component of plankton living in bodies of water ranging in size from small puddles to the largest oceans, currently sequester approximately one quarter of the atmospheric carbon dioxide, but increases in global temperatures associated with increased levels of carbon dioxide could result their ability to absorb and "fix" this greenhouse gas. [Michigan State University News]
Cleanup efforts could be more lethal than the oil spill -- A biology professor at Queen's University in Ontario reported that efforts that use detergents clean up spills of diesel oil from water bodies significantly increase its toxicity to fish, making the cleanup efforts more harmful than intended.[ Queen's University News Centre]
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, 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, including drought, floods, and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

REPORT FROM THE FIELD -- Carol Hildreth, DataStreme Ocean LIT Leader from New York State, reported that while out on the Sargasso Sea, she saw sargassum floating by her ship after it departed from New Jersey. She had expected that the sargassum would be much greener, but it appeared as golden rust-colored mats of plant life.

Concept of the Week: Loss of Louisiana's Coast

According to the Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Task Force, Louisiana has been losing its coastal wetlands (bayous, marshes, and swamps) to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico at an alarming rate of about 65 to 100 square km (25 to 38 square mi) per year for the past several decades. This loss adversely affects fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico and makes the coastal zone more vulnerable to storm surges such as that produced by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Since the early 1930s, the state's coastal wetlands have shrunk by an area equivalent to the state of Delaware. According to USGS estimates, an additional 1800 square km (700 square mi) could be lost by mid-century. The price tag for reversing this trend, restoring some marshes, and protecting the remaining 15,000 square km (5800 square mi) of wetlands could top $14 billion and take decades to complete. Many people argue that the value of Louisiana's coastal wetlands is well worth the expense.

As much as 75% of the fish and other marine life in the northern Gulf of Mexico depend on Louisiana's coastal wetlands. The wetlands are a nursery for commercially important catches of shrimp, crawfish, blue crab, and oysters. It is a food source for larger fish including yellow fin tuna, red snapper, and swordfish. In 2003, about three-quarters of the nation's fish and shellfish catch by weight came from Louisiana's waters. In addition, the wetlands are a stopover for millions of birds migrating between North and Central/South America. Furthermore, wetlands and associated barrier islands protect the ports, buildings, and other coastal zone structures from storm surges. Wetlands are particularly important in buffering the levees surrounding New Orleans, much of which is below sea level.

Many factors contribute to the loss of Louisiana's coastal wetlands. Thousands of kilometers of pipelines transporting oil and natural gas through the marshes plus the extensive network of navigation channels allow saltwater to intrude the wetlands. Increased salinity of the originally fresh or brackish waters kill wetland grasses, shrubs, and other vegetation that anchor soil in place. The canals also allow tidal currents to flow farther inland, accelerating erosion of wetland soils. The most important factor, however, is the consequence of flood control structures (levees) constructed along the banks of the Mississippi River. Levees constrict the flow of the river so that waters and suspended sediment discharge rapidly into the Gulf. Deprived of a continuous input of sediments and vegetation-supporting nutrients, existing sediments compact, wetlands subside and Gulf waters invade the wetlands. With the anticipated continued rise in sea level due to global climate change (discussed in Chapter 12 of your textbook), erosion of Louisiana's coastal wetland may accelerate in the future.

Plans to reverse the loss of Louisiana's coastal wetlands (the Coast 2005 plan and the Louisiana Coastal Area plan) seek to restore the structure and function of coastal wetlands. One proposal is to breach some levees along the lower Mississippi. This partial diversion of the Mississippi would increase the supply of sediments to the wetlands. Closing or installing locks on some navigation canals would reduce saltwater intrusion. In addition, dredged sediment would be used to re-build wetlands and restore barrier islands.

Concept of the Week: Questions

The most important factor contributing to erosion of Louisiana's coastal wetlands is [(saltwater intrusion)(levees along the banks of the Mississippi River)].
Global climate change that is accompanied by a rise in sea level is likely to [(accelerate)(have no effect on)] the rate of erosion of Louisiana's coastal wetlands.

Historical Events:

24 March 1955...The first seagoing oil drill rig (for drilling in over 100 feet of water) was placed in service by the U.S. company C.G. Glasscock Drilling Co. The rig was able to drive piles with a force of 827 tons and pull a pile with the force of 942 tons. (Today in Science History)
24 March 1989...The tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on a reef in Prince William Sound, AK, spilling 10.1 million gallons of crude oil, resulting in the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Coast Guard units responded and prevented the entire cargo from spilling, cleaned up the oil which did spill, and conducted an investigation into the causes of the accident. The spill provided the impetus for the passage of the Oil Protection Act in 1990. (US Coast Guard Historians Office)
25 March 2000...A rouge wave near Shelter Cove, CA swept a lady from a Canadian school group into the ocean. Four members of the group tried to rescue her, but were overcome by the waves and currents. A fishing vessel and the US Coast Guard rescued two of the rescuers. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
26 March 1845...Joseph Francis of New York City patented a corrugated sheet-iron lifeboat. (Today in Science History)
26 March 1946...The International Ice Patrol resumed after being suspended during World War II. (US Coast Guard Historians Office)
26-28 March 2004…The first ever confirmed hurricane in the South Atlantic Ocean, named Catarina, struck the coast of the Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul with heavy rains and winds, before dissipating over land late on the 28th. (The Weather Doctor)
27 March 1513...Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida (and the continent of North America) for the first time, mistaking it for another island. (Wikipedia)
27 March 1827...At the age of 18, Charles Darwin submitted his first report of an original scientific discovery to the Plinian Society in Edinburgh, Scotland. Darwin had made several discoveries about the biology of tiny marine organisms found along the Scottish coast. (Today in Science History)
27 March 1899...The first international radio transmission between England and France was achieved by the Italian inventor G. Marconi.
27 March 1930...The first US radio broadcast was made from a ship at sea.
27-28 March 1964...The most powerful earthquake in US history, the Good Friday Earthquake, rocked south central Alaska, killing 125 people and causing $311 million in property damage, especially to the city of Anchorage. The earthquake in Prince William Sound, which had a magnitude of 9.2 on the Richter scale, caused some landmasses to be thrust upward locally as high as 80 feet, while elsewhere land sank as much as 8 feet. This earthquake and submarine landslides also created a tsunami that also produced extensive coastal damage. A landslide at Valdez Inlet in Alaska generated a tsunami that reached a height of 220 feet in the inlet. A major surge wave that was approximately 100 ft above low tide caused major damage to Whittier (where 13 died) and other coastal communities in Alaska. The first wave took more than 5 hours to reach the Hawaiian Islands where a 10-foot wave was detected, while a wave that was 14.8 feet above high tide level traveled along portions of the West Coast, reaching northern California 4 hours after the earthquake. Nearly 10,000 people jammed beaches at San Francisco to view the possible tsunami, but no high-amplitude waves hit those beaches. Tsunami damage reached Crescent City in northern California. Tens of thousands of aftershocks indicated that the region of faulting extended a distance of about 600 miles. The Alaska Tsunami Warning Center was established because of this disaster, with a mission to warn Alaskan communities of the threat from tsunamis. [See the 1964 Prince William Sound Tsunami page from the University of Washington.] (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (US Coast Guard Historians Office)
27 March 1980...Waves to 20 feet and winds to 58 mph in the North Sea southwest of Stavanger, Norway led to the collapse of an oil rig accommodation platform. The deaths of 123 of the 212 people on the platform was the world's worst drilling catastrophe. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
28 March 1848...USS Supply reached the Bay of Acre, anchoring under Mount Carmel near the village of Haifa, during expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan. (Naval Historical Center)
28 March 1910...Henri Fabre became the first person to fly a seaplane after taking off from a water runway at Martigues near Marseilles, France. (Wikipedia)
29-31 March 1848...An ice dam at the neck of Lake Erie and the entrance to the Niagara River between Fort Erie, ON and Buffalo, NY caused by wind, waves and lake currents stopped flow of water over Niagara Falls for 30 hours, commencing during the late hours of the 29^th. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (The Weather Doctor)
29 March 1910...The world's largest oceanographic museum was opened in Monaco through the generosity of Prince Albert I of Monaco, a great oceanographer, statesman, and humanitarian. This museum, a part of the Oceanographic Institute, has a grandiose facade overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. (Today in Science History)
29 March 1914...The Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Ireland, which had departed Quebec the previous day for Liverpool, collided with the Norwegian collier Storstad in the fog along the St. Lawrence River, sinking with the loss of 1024 passengers and crew.
29 March 1985...The Nantucket I was decommissioned, ending 164 years of lightship service. (USCG Historian's Office)