Hmmmm...How did that get there?

You can never quite tell what's under your feet.  Well, anytime we have a strong nor'easter here on Long Island, it can expose some interesting formations along the shores.  That was all too obvious after Superstorm Sandy.

Well, NW Europe has had a brutal winter.  They are not so much dealing with intense cold, but rather with storm after storm after storm.  Powerful storms, too; with winds powerful enough (>100 mph) to make it unsafe for train travel at times.  The waves from these powerful storms have ravaged the English and Irish coasts.

Read on to the linked National Geographic article for some interesting exposed trees.

Welsh Forest Exposed - Nat Geo

Free Oxygen and the Early Ocean & Atmosphere

Recently some new evidence has been uncovered about when the earth's atmosphere began to be oxygenated.  In addition to obviously affecting the composition of the atmosphere, that oxygenation event would have impacted ocean chemistry as well.  It's thought that this oxygenation was brought about by simple cyanobacteria, amongst the simplest photosynthetic organisms on the planet.



Earth Oxygenation

NASA's MODIS - Behind the Scenes

Images credit - NASA.

MODIS...you've probably never heard of these instruments before.  Yet, they are two of NASA's workhorse satellite sensors.  They ride aboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.  You may be wondering, "How do these instruments affect oceanography? (This is pretty much the same post I made for the earth science blog too.)  Well, these instruments are responsible for accumulating lots of data about the world ocean's state as well.

By the way...who says NASA is dead? NASA is alive and well.

Accuweather.com has an excellent description of their capabilities here:Accuweather - MODIS Article

Here's the link to NASA's homepage for it: NASA - MODIS Homepage  Great stuff here.

The Orca - 'Wolf of the Sea'

Orca skeleton.  Image credit: Wikipedia.

Recent research suggests that even the killer whale, the 'wolf of the sea,' may have seen population crashes during the most recent ice age.  Productivity (photosynthetic) is critical to the survival of the smallest animals in the world ocean through the largest.

Read on for more info from Science Daily: Article - Orca Populations

Here's another link to BBC Nature Video Collection - Killer Whales