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
Jupiter's Moon Europa Has Enough Oxygen For Life
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 16, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (94) |
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New research suggests that there is plenty of oxygen available in the subsurface ocean of Europa to support oxygen-based metabolic processes for life similar to that on Earth. In fact, there may be enough ...
New NASA Satellite Survey Reveals Dramatic Arctic Sea Ice Thinning
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 07, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (65) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thin seasonal ice replacing thick older ice as the dominant type for the first time on record. The new results, ...
Scientists: Global warming has already changed oceans
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 10, 2009 |
4.2 / 5 (63) |
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In Washington state, oysters in some areas haven't reproduced for four years, and preliminary evidence suggests that the increasing acidity of the ocean could be the cause. In the Gulf of Mexico, falling oxygen levels in ...
Wind + water = untapped energy: An abundance of power exists above Earth's oceans, study finds
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 30, 2009 |
4.6 / 5 (58) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Wind energy over the planet's oceans is a vastly underutilized renewable resource, according to UC Irvine researchers.
In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record (Update)
Aug 20, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Steve Kramer spent an hour and a half swimming in the ocean this week - in Maine.
Study shows strong evidence that cloud changes may exacerbate global warming
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 23, 2009 |
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The role of clouds in climate change has been a major question for decades. As the earth warms under increasing greenhouse gases, it is not known whether clouds will dissipate, letting in more of the sun's ...
Deadly heat waves are becoming more frequent in California
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 25, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (50) |
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From mid July to early August 2006, a heat wave swept through the southwestern United States. Temperature records were broken at many locations and unusually high humidity levels for this typically arid region ...
Controversial new climate change results
Nov 10, 2009 |
4.1 / 5 (48) |
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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 ...
African desert rift confirmed as new ocean in the making
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 02, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (36) |
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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 ...
Who will pick up the bill? Possible job cuts and revenue loss as a result of ocean acidification
Jun 01, 2009 |
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Ocean acidification, a direct result of increased CO2 emission, is set to change the Earth's marine ecosystems forever and may have a direct impact on our economy, resulting in substantial revenue declines and job losses.
Solar cycle linked to global climate
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 16, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (30) |
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Establishing a key link between the solar cycle and global climate, research led by scientists at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., ...
Scientists find 'great Pacific Ocean garbage patch'
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 27, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (33) |
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Scientists have just completed an unprecedented journey into the vast and little-explored "Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch."
The Earth's magnetic field remains a charged mystery
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jun 15, 2009 |
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400 years of discussion and we’re still not sure what creates the Earth’s magnetic field, and thus the magnetosphere, despite the importance of the latter as the only buffer between us and deadly solar wind ...
Mystery Solved: Marine Microbe Is Source of Rare Nutrient
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 29, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (23) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of microscopic marine microbes, called phytoplankton, by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of South Carolina has solved a ten-year-old ...
Mystery mechanism drove global warming 55 million years ago
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jul 13, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (25) |
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A runaway spurt of global warming 55 million years ago turned Earth into a hothouse but how this happened remains worryingly unclear, scientists said on Monday.
