Heidi Pearson, University of Alaska Southeast
As the prospect of catastrophic effects from climate change becomes increasingly likely, a search is on for innovative ways to reduce the risks. One potentially powerful and low-cost strategy is to recognize and protect natural carbon sinks – places and processes that store carbon, keeping it out of Earth’s atmosphere.
Continue reading Sea creatures store carbon in the ocean – could protecting them help slow climate change?On April 15, 1912, RMS Titanic, which was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service, sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.
It was one of the deadliest commercial marine disasters in modern history: of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died.
Here is a real-time animation of the RMS Titanic’s sinking below, published by Titanic: Honor And Glory channel.
Continue reading Titanic sinking in real time (2 hours and 40 minutes)French freediving champion Guillaume Néry, and his wife, the French freediver, underwater filmmaker and dancer Julie Gautier published an amazing video titled “One breath around the world”.
In the video, Néry plunges into the ocean’s hidden depths, revealing remarkable views of marine geology and wildlife, without the aid of supplied air. There are many amazing scenes like “dancing with the whales”.
Continue reading Dancing with the whales – amazing freediving video!Reported by the sailors at least since the 19th century, a rogue wave is a very large, extremely steep, unexpected and suddenly appearing surface wave. It is also called as a freak wave, monster wave, killer wave, and extreme wave.
For centuries, seamen told stories about encounters with extremely big, ship-sinking waves, much bigger than any wave surrounding them. According to sailors, these waves were also so steep – almost vertical, insurmountable walls of water.
Continue reading What is a Rogue Wave and why they are so dangerousAs I scuba dive in Oslob Bay off Cebu Island in the Philippines, I see a tiny shadow dart over the surface of the spherical coral block – a minute fish, a goby of the genus Eviota, among the smallest vertebrates in existence, only about a centimetre long and less than 1/10th of a gramme light. It’s about a million times smaller than myself, with the same basic vertebrate body: a spinal cord, a bony skull, a brain, kidneys and a liver. With the exception of gills and lungs, the tiny fish and I share similar sets of organs, just at a very dissimilar size.
Continue reading Is bigger always better, or will the tiny inherit the Earth?The blue whale (scientific name: Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the baleen whales (Mysticeti). Up to 31 meters (102 feet) in length and 190 tonnes (210 short tons) in weight, it is the largest extant animal and also is the heaviest known to have existed. But it’s hard to conceptualize how big these wonderful animals really are. To put things into perspective, Facts in Motion channel prepared a video titled “Blue Whales Are Way Bigger Than You Think”. The video also explains the evolutionary reasons behind how and why blue whales get that large.
Continue reading How big is the blue whale? Watch to seeOur planet is getting warmer, with an increasing pace. This month, there were three bad, very bad news about global warming. According to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Antarctica is losing six times more ice mass annually now than 40 years ago. Another study, published in the scientific journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences concluded that 2018 was the hottest year ever recorded for the Earth’s oceans. And, according to
A woman was swimming on 4 December 2018 at Hahei Beach on the Coromandel peninsular, New Zealand. Then a pod of orcas (killer whales) swam up to her (probably a mother and two calves), and circled her. They kept swimming around her while she was headed to the shore. Especially the mother swam really close to her. A man named Dylan Brayshaw captured the full scene from a drone. The result is the amazing drone footage below.
Continue reading Watch: Orcas SWIMMING AROUND a WomanWould you like to have the ability to transform back to a younger version of yoursel? Meet Immortal Jellyfish (scientific name: Turritopsis
In the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, there’s a location called “Point Nemo”. It’s not a place that humans live – in fact, there is no land there – not an island, not even a small rock. It is actually the remotest place from any human civilization you can find on Earth. It lies at least 2,688 km (1,670 mi) from the nearest land. It is also called “Oceanic pole of inaccessibility”.Notes 1
