Oceans
Analyze This: Even as Earth’s oceans warm, one spot has gone cold
A cold blob of water in the North Atlantic suggests that an important ocean current is weakening.
By Carolyn Gramling and Carolyn Wilke
Oceans
More Stories in Oceans
- Animals
Watch an orca smash into a sunfish hard enough to make it explode
This tactic expands killer whales’ already broad range of behaviors for taking down prey.
- Animals
Spying on the secret lives of boobies
New high-tech tools let scientists “tag” along with these red-footed seabirds to solve the mystery of how boobies spend their days at sea.
- Animals
Some sea stars channel light like fiber-optic cables
The tiny cone-shaped structures in arms of chocolate-chip sea stars also triple their skeleton’s strength.
- Oceans
Meet the world’s biggest waves — and the mysteries behind them
These towering walls of water carry a lot of energy. Scientists are investigating what gives rise to such behemoths and their destructive power.
- Earth
Scientists Say: Fjord
These dramatic, steep-sided sea inlets form when glaciers carve deep channels from the terrain.
- Oceans
Big waves shape this surfer-scientist’s research and life
Professor and pro surfer Cliff Kapono studies human-ocean interactions through the lens of a surfer, from molecular to macro scales.
- Animals
Giant school bus–sized octopuses may have once ruled the oceans
Some of these predators were as long as whales. Roaming the seas more than 72 million years ago, the octopuses appear to have been the largest invertebrates ever known.
- Climate
Hundreds of sea level studies have underestimated ocean rise
One widely used “geoid” technique may have missed up to a century of sea level rise — so risks could hit millions of people far sooner than expected.
- Science & Society
This evolutionary biologist fuses art into her science
Victoria Glynn is studying how high temperatures are affecting ocean plankton. She also makes art to help communicate science to the public.
