16-20 May 2005

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2005 with new Ocean News and Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 29 August 2005. All the current online homepage products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

• Hurricane Preparedness Week -- With the beginning of the official 2005 hurricane season for the North Atlantic Basin beginning on 1 June, this upcoming week (15-21 May) has been declared National Hurricane Awareness Week. The National Hurricane Center maintains a hurricane preparedness website that provides information and educational material for the various hurricane hazards to include storm surge, high winds, tornadoes and flooding. (A Spanish version of this website is also available.) Several Gulf Coast and Middle Atlantic States will also conduct statewide Hurricane Preparedness Weeks during this upcoming week. Since the 2005 hurricane season began in the eastern North Pacific basin on Sunday (15 May), Hawaii conducted its Makani Pahili State Wide Hurricane Drill.
  To kickoff National Hurricane Preparedness Week, NOAA officials will release their 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook at a news conference scheduled for Monday, 16 May 2005. [NOAA Media Advisory]

• Spill drill conducted in the Florida Keys-- An interagency drill called Safe Sanctuaries 2005 was recently conducted in the NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary by units from NOAA, the US Coast Guard and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, with the intent of improving the agencies' ability to respond and protect both the environment and public in the event of an oil spill or ship grounding. [NOAA News]
• Ships on Great Lakes could still carry invaders -- A joint report by scientists at NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the University of Michigan indicates that while ocean going ships plying the Great Lakes may still contain aquatic species that could be detrimental to the Lakes even though these ships do not contain ballast water that would be discharged. [NOAA News]
• Keep back from the marine mammals -- The NOAA Fisheries Service is cautioning the public to maintain a safe and appropriate distance from marine mammals, such as whales and dolphins, and not to interfere with their activities. [NOAA News]
• Research cruise to study changes in Atlantic -- Scientists at the University of Liverpool, the University of East Anglia and the British National Oceanography Centre are about to embark on a research cruise of the Atlantic Ocean to examine the recent ocean temperature changes and to assess the cause and possible implications. [EurekAlert!]
• Looking at the ocean to predict elk populations -- A researcher at the University of Alberta has been using the North Pacific Oscillation Index values, which are statistics about the climate of the Pacific Ocean, to predict the size of elk populations in the Canadian Rockies. [EurekAlert!]
• Heavy metals used by marine life -- Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have discovered that some trace toxic heavy metals, such as cadmium, appear to be used by marine life. [EurekAlert!]
• Paleozoic ocean more like a large lake -- Scientists from Imperial College in London report that their tidal computer model indicates that tides in the Paleozoic ocean approximately 300 million years ago were small, resulting in little vertical mixing that would suggest that the ocean was more like a giant salty lake. [EurekAlert!]
• North American Safe Boating Week -- Commencing this coming Saturday, the week of 21-27 May has been declared 2005 National Safe Boating Week. Check the Safe Boating Week site maintained by the Safe Boating Council.
• 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.

• 16 May 1917...Marquette, MI had its latest opening of navigation on Lake Superior in history. (Intellicast)
• 17-21 May 1887...An early season tropical storm raked Cuba and The Bahamas. (The Weather Doctor)
• 17 May1970...The Norwegian ethnologist, Thor Heyerdahl, and a multinational crew set sail on a trans-Atlantic voyage from Morocco on Ra II, a papyrus sailing craft modeled after the ancient Egyptian vessels in an effort to prove his theory that Mediterranean sailors reached the Americas in ancient times. After 57 days, the Ra II reached Barbados. (The History Channel)
• 19 May 1535...French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail his second voyage to North America with 3 ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage). (Wikipedia)
• 19 May 1912...The US Navy established the North Atlantic Ice Patrol following the RMS Titanic disaster. (Naval Historical Center)
• 20 May 1497...John Cabot set sail from Bristol, England, on his ship The Mathew looking for a route to the west (other documents give a 2 May date). (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1498...The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama became the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean when he arrived at Kozhikode (previously known as Calicut) on the Malabar Coast, after departing Lisbon, Portugal in July 1497. (The History Channel) (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1570...Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issued the first modern atlas. (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1845...HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost. (Wikipedia)
• 20 May 1964...The first U.S. atomic-powered lighthouse was put into operation in the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore Harbor, Md. Designed to supply a continuous flow of electricity for ten years without refuelling, the 60-watt nuclear generator generated heat from strontium-90 in the form of strontium titinate, a safe radioisotope. The heat was converted to electricity by 120 pairs of lead telluride thermocouples. Complete with shielding, the unit was only 34.5 inches high and 22 inches in diameter. It was designed and produced by the nuclear division of Martin-Marietta Corp. (Today in Science)
• 20 May 1999...A devastating cyclone, packing winds of up to 170 mph and a high storm surge, struck the Sindh Province in southern Pakistan. Some 600 villages were devastated and more than 400 people killed. (The Weather Doctor)
• 22 May 1819...The steamship SS Savannah left Savannah, GA on a voyage to Liverpool , England and became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It reached Liverpool on 20 June. (Wikipedia)
• 22 May 1849...The future President, Abraham Lincoln, received a patent for the floating dry dock described as for "buoying boats over shoals" (No. 6,469). He was the first American president to receive a patent. His idea utilized inflated cylinders to float grounded vessels through shallow water. (Today in Science)
• 22-24 May 1948...A rare early season hurricane struck the island of Hispaniola, killing an estimated 80 people. (The Weather Doctor)
• 22 May 1960...A 8.6 magnitude earthquake off the coast of south central Chile triggered a tsunami that moved across the Pacific Ocean. Between 490 and 2290 people were estimated to have been killed by the earthquake and tsunami, and damage estimates were over one half billion dollars. Hilo, HI was devastated by the tsunami. (The University of Washington)

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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.