Hurricanes are very powerful tropical storms (also known as tropical cyclones). When a tropical storm’s maximum sustained winds reach 74 mph (119 km/h), it is called a hurricane. Hurricane is actually the name of a tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and the northeastern Pacific Ocean. In the northwestern Pacific Ocean; in the …
Category Archives: Oceans
Titanic sinking in real-time
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 …
Dancing with the whales [amazing freediving video!]
French freediving champion Guillaume Néry, and his wife, the French freediver, underwater filmmaker, and dancer Julie Gautier published an amazing freediving 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 …
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Rogue Wave explained [here’s why they are so dangerous]
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 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 …
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Is bigger always better, or will the tiny inherit the Earth?
As 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 …
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Blue whale facts: How big is the blue whale?
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 …
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Global Warming: Three bad (very bad!) news
Our planet is getting warmer, at an increasing pace. This month, there was 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 …
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Orcas swimming around a woman (video)
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 …
Immortal Jellyfish [the only animal which can live eternally!]
Would you like to have the ability to transform back to a younger version of yourself? Meet Immortal Jellyfish (scientific name: Turritopsis dohrnii), the only species on Earth which can live (theoretically, at least) an eternal life.
Point Nemo [The Spacecraft Graveyard!]
In the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, there’s a location called “Point Nemo”. It’s not a place where 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 …
