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8 April 2020
Shelf sediments, freshwater runoff from rivers brings more carbon, nutrients to North Pole
Freshwater runoff from rivers and continental shelf sediments are bringing significant quantities of carbon and trace elements into parts of the Arctic Ocean via the Transpolar Drift—a major surface current that moves water from Siberia across the North Pole to the North Atlantic Ocean.
7 April 2020
NASA study adds a pinch of salt to El Niño models
When modeling the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) ocean-climate cycle, adding satellite sea surface salinity — or saltiness — data significantly improves model accuracy, according to a new study. ENSO is an irregular cycle of warm and cold climate events called El Niño and La Niña. In normal years, strong easterly trade winds blow from the Americas toward southeast Asia, but in an El Niño year, those winds are reduced and sometimes even reversed. Warm water that was “piled up” in the western Pacific flows back toward the Americas, changing atmospheric pressure and moisture to produce droughts in Asia and more frequent storms and floods in the Americas. The reverse pattern is called a La Niña, in which the ocean in the eastern Pacific is cooler than normal.
22 April 2019
New research explains why Hurricane Harvey intensified immediately before landfall
A new study explains the mechanism behind Hurricane Harvey’s unusual intensification off the Texas coast and how the finding could improve future hurricane forecasting.
20 March 2019
Where do microplastics go in the oceans?
Where do tiny bits of plastic go when they are flushed out to sea? Much gets caught in subtropical ocean gyres, but more microplastic may be reaching Arctic waters than previously appreciated. Watch a simulation of microplastic drift over 12 years in the North Pacific.
6 March 2019
Deep diving robots find warming accelerating in South Pacific Ocean waters
The coldest, near-bottom South Pacific waters originating from Antarctica are warming three times faster than they were in the 1990s, according to new research analyzing data from deep-diving ocean robots and research cruises.
1 June 2018
Reconstructing America’s longest water level and instrumented flood record in Boston
By Jan Lathrop Using newly-discovered archival measurements to construct an instrumental record of water levels and storm tides in Boston since 1825, researchers report that local averaged relative sea level rose by nearly a foot (0.28 meters) over the past 200 years, with the greatest increase occurring since 1920. The work also highlights tides and their significant effect on flooding in the city. The evaluation of storm events since 1825 …
18 April 2018
Tohoku tsunami impacted home-building habits of eco-engineer heart urchins
In a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, researchers explore how tsunamis impact shallow marine environments, also known as benthic environments, and the small, burrowing animals that dwell there.
22 January 2018
American lobsters feeling the heat in the northwest Atlantic
Rising temperatures along the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean will force American lobsters farther offshore and into more northern waters, a new study finds. Climate models project that ocean bottom temperatures in the Atlantic along the U.S. East Coast may rise by up to 4.3 degrees Celsius (7.7 degrees Fahrenehit) by the end of the century. The new study’s results show these rising temperatures will likely make conditions in the American lobster’s southernmost range—less hospitable in the future for juveniles, pushing them farther north and into habitats farther offshore.
22 November 2017
Scientists counter threat of flooding on coral reef coasts
Scientists have developed a computer simulation tool to predict short-term flood hazards on coral-reef-lined coasts and to assess longer-term impacts from climate change. The assessments will give input to estimate societal or economic risk and damage from such flooding.
1 November 2017
Polluted groundwater eroding Hawaiian coral reefs, study shows
Local land-based pollution makes coral reefs more vulnerable to ocean acidification and could trigger coastal coral reef ecosystem collapses sooner than projected, according to new research.
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.