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
Climate experts debate strategies for reducing atmospheric carbon and future warming
Nov 25, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Reducing carbon dioxide to safe levels may require extracting carbon from the air, says Cornell climate researcher.
From Greenhouse to Icehouse
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 24, 2009 |
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A new study that reconstructed ocean temperatures from millions of years ago could provide new insight into how the Earth responds to climate change.
Oceans absorbing carbon dioxide more slowly, scientist finds
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 24, 2009 |
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The world's oceans are absorbing less carbon dioxide (CO2), a Yale geophysicist has found after pooling data taken over the past 50 years. With the oceans currently absorbing over 40 percent of the CO2 emitted by human activity, ...
Beyond sunlight: Explorers census 17,650 ocean species between edge of darkness and black abyss (w/ Video)
Nov 22, 2009 |
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Census of Marine Life scientists have inventoried an astonishing abundance, diversity and distribution of deep sea species that have never known sunlight - creatures that somehow manage a living in a frigid ...
Aquatic creatures mix ocean water
Nov 22, 2009 |
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Understanding mixing in the ocean is of fundamental importance to modeling climate change or predicting the effects of an El Niño on our weather. Modern ocean models primarily incorporate the effects of winds and tides. However, ...
Icebergs head from Antarctica for New Zealand
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 24, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Ships in the south Pacific Ocean have been alerted that hundreds of icebergs believed to have split off Antarctic ice shelves are drifting north toward New Zealand, officials said Tuesday.
Global study of salmon shows: 'Sustainable' food isn't so sustainable
Nov 24, 2009 |
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Popular thinking about how to improve food systems for the better often misses the point, according to the results of a three-year global study of salmon production systems. Rather than pushing for organic or land-based ...
Controversial new climate change results
Nov 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- New data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of CO2 has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of CO2 having risen from about 2 billion ...
Rich Ore Deposits Linked to Ancient Atmosphere
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Much of our planet's mineral wealth was deposited billions of years ago when Earth's chemical cycles were different from today's. Using geochemical clues from rocks nearly 3 billion years old, a group of ...
Earth's early ocean cooled more than a billion years earlier than thought (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 11, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The scalding-hot sea that supposedly covered the early Earth may in fact never have existed, according to a new study by Stanford University researchers who analyzed isotope ratios in 3.4 ...
Oceans' uptake of manmade carbon may be slowing
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 18, 2009 |
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The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial ...
One word: bioplastics
Nov 17, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Every year, more than 250 billion pounds of plastic are produced worldwide. Much of it ends up in the world's oceans, a fact that troubles MIT biology professor Anthony Sinskey.
Ships warned about icebergs headed for New Zealand
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 25, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Ships are on alert and maritime authorities are monitoring the movements of hundreds of menacing icebergs drifting toward New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, officials said.
Fossil fuel CO2 emissions up by 29 percent since 2000
Nov 17, 2009 |
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The strongest evidence yet that the rise in atmospheric CO2 emissions continues to outstrip the ability of the world's natural 'sinks' to absorb carbon is published this week in the journal Nature Geoscience. ...
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 ...
