Ocean Sciences

April GeoRoundUp: the best of the Earth sciences from the 2017 General Assembly

Laura Roberts-Artal May 4, 2017

This diagram created by Cassini's mission planning team shows how navigators use Titan flybys to shape Cassini's orbits. Credit NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Caltech / Erick Sturm

This month’s GeoRoundUp is a slight deviation from the norm. Instead of drawing inspiration from popular stories on our social media channels and unique or quirky research featured in the news, we’ve rounded up some of the stories which came out of researcher presented at our General Assembly (which took place last week in Vienna). The traditional format for the column will return in May! Major st ...[Read More]

Knowing the ocean’s twists and turns

Conor Purcell April 12, 2017

The ocean’s currents . Credit: Canuckguy (talk) and many others (see File history) derivative work (distributed via Wikimedia Commons )

Navigating the ocean demands a knowledge of its movements. In the past, sailors have used this knowledge to their advantage, following the winds and the ocean currents to bring them on their way. Prior to mutiny in 1789, Captain Bligh – on the HMS Bounty – famously spent a month attempting to pass westward through the Drake Passage, around Patagonia’s Cape Horn. Here the westerly ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Atmospheric gravity waves

Laura Roberts-Artal April 10, 2017

Atmospheric gravity waves . Credit: Jorge Magalhaes and Jose da Silva (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

From the tiny vibrations which travel through air, allowing us to hear music, to the mighty waves which traverse oceans and the powerful oscillations which shake the ground back and forth during an earthquake, waves are an intrinsic part of the world around us. As particles vibrate repeatedly, they create an oscillation, which when accompanied by the transfer of energy, creates a wave. The way in ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: How El Niño triggered Indonesia corals die-off

Laura Roberts-Artal March 3, 2017

Coral bleaching in the Maldives captured by The Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey in May 2016. Credit: he Ocean Agency / XL Catlin Seaview Survey / Richard Vevers.

In the glistening waters of Indonesia, shallow corals – the rain forests of the sea – teem with life. Or at least they did once. Towards the end of 2015 the corals started to die, leaving a bleak landscape behind. An international team of researchers investigated the causes of the die-off. Their findings, published recently in the EGU’s open access journal, Biogeosciences, are rather ...[Read More]