Ocean
hideAn ocean (from Greek Ωκεανός, Okeanos (Oceanus)) is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt.
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News tagged with ocean
W. Africa's last giraffes make surprising comeback
19 hours ago |
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(AP) -- A crisp African dawn is breaking overhead, and Zibo Mounkaila is on the back of a pickup truck bounding across a sparse landscape of rocky orange soil.
Newly Discovered Fat Molecule: An Undersea Killer with an Upside
Nov 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A chemical culprit responsible for the rapid, mysterious death of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean has been found by collaborating scientists at Rutgers University and the Woods Hole ...
Volcanic eruptions may split Africa: scientists
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 03, 2009 |
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Volcanic activity may split the African continent in two owing to a recent geological crack in northeastern Ethiopia, researchers said on Tuesday.
Mapping nutrient distributions over the Atlantic Ocean
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 03, 2009 |
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Large-scale distributions of two important nutrient pools - dissolved organic nitrogen and dissolved organic phosphorus (DON and DOP) have been systematically mapped for the first time over the Atlantic Ocean in a study led ...
Climate variability impacts the deep sea
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Deep-sea ecosystems occupying 60% of the Earth's surface could be vulnerable to the effects of global warming warn scientists writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
North Atlantic fish populations shifting as ocean temperatures warm
Nov 02, 2009 |
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About half of 36 fish stocks in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, many of them commercially valuable species, have been shifting northward over the last four decades, with some stocks nearly disappearing from U.S. waters as they ...
African desert rift confirmed as new ocean in the making
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled ...
SMOS, Proba-2: Two new ESA satellites successfully lofted into orbit (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The second satellite in ESA's Earth Explorer series - the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission - and the second demonstration satellite under ESA's Project for Onboard Autonomy ...
Ancient ocean chemistry: Effects of biological oxygen production 100 million years before it accumulated in atmosphere
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 29, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists widely accept that around 2.4 billion years ago, the Earth's atmosphere underwent a dramatic change when oxygen levels rose sharply. Called the "Great Oxidation Event" (GOE), the ...
Soil moisture and ocean salinity satellite ready for launch
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 29, 2009 |
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A new European Earth observation satellite will be launched in the early hours of Monday morning (2 November 2009) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
Autosub6000 dives to depth of 3.5 miles
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 28, 2009 |
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The United Kingdom's deepest diving Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), Autosub6000, has been put through its paces during an extremely successful engineering trials cruise on the RRS Discovery, 27 September ...
Ocean acidification may contribute to global shellfish decline
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 26, 2009 |
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Relatively minor increases in ocean acidity brought about by high levels of carbon dioxide have significant detrimental effects on the growth, development, and survival of hard clams, bay scallops, and Eastern ...
Hawaii regulators approve first US tuna farm
Oct 25, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Hawaii regulators have approved a Honolulu startup company's plan to build the nation's first tuna farm in waters off the Big Island.
Saving sand: South Carolina beaches become a model for preservation
Oct 23, 2009 |
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While most people head to Myrtle Beach for vacation, a group of scientists have been hitting the famous South Carolina beach for years to figure out how to keep the sand from washing away.
Seafloor Fossils Provide Clues on Climate Change
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 22, 2009 |
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Deep under the sea, a fossil the size of a sand grain is nestled among a billion of its closest dead relatives. Known as foraminifera, these complex little shells of calcium carbonate can tell you the sea ...
