Detail of a photo: Maze of layered canyon walls and buttes in bands of red, cream and grey, receding into the distance in soft evening light.
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Baltic Sea

GeoSciences Column: The dirty business of shipping goods by sea

November 10, 2017
“Above the foggy strip, this white arch was shining, covering one third of the visible sky in the direction of the ship's bow,” he explains. “It was a so-called white, or fog rainbow, which appears on the fog droplets, which are much smaller then rain droplets and cause different optic effects, which is a reason of its white colour.”

Shipping goods across the oceans is cost-effective and super-efficient; that’s why over 80% of world trade is carried by sea (according to the International Maritime Organisation). But the shipping industry also contributes significant amounts of air pollutants to marine and coastal environments. A new study, published in the EGU’s open access journal Earth System Dynamics, …[Read More]