Spring is Here!

Great article on the "greening" of the Atlantic Ocean each spring.

WHOI - Spring Bloom

Lab Website

Just to make getting to the NOAA Tides and Currents site easier for our lab, I put the link below:

NOAA Tides & Currents - Stations

There is a problem with the tide gauge at Montauk Point.  Use New London, CT, instead of Montauk.

Dredging and Coral

"Panama Canal Miraflores Locks" by Stan Shebs. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panama_Canal_Miraflores_Locks.jpg#/media/File:Panama_Canal_Miraflores_Locks.jpg

I'm finally starting to catch up on my reading.

I just came across this article and video on the National Geographic website.  It talks about the dredging going on in east coast ports so that they can accommodate post-Panamax and new-Panamax vessels.  The Bayonne Bridge in NJ is being raised to accommodate these behemoths.

Anyway...the article and video are about dredging taking place in Florida for the same reasons, and how the dredging is literally smothering vital coral communities.

Nat Geo - Dredging & Coral

Great Article from NASA

Ice in NYC's East River - Triboro Bridge
Image Credit - Greenfield Daily Reporter

Long Island Sound Near Sound Ave.
Southold, NY
Image Credit - southold Times

Here's a link to a fantastic article from NASA's Earth Observatory about all of the ice in the eastern part of the United States.

NASA Earth Observatory

Ice Boating, Anyone?

Ice Boating - Long Island

Great short video from News 12 on this year's ice boating season on Long Island's East End.

News 12 - Ice Boating

Vatican Observatory

I know, this isn't oceanography, but it's well worth watching.  You really can be a devout Catholic, even a priest or religious, and a scientist! The atheist obviously disagrees.  Well, we know he's wrong anyway.

Snow Day

Not a bad snowstorm at all here on Long Island.

Just a note about science fair projects...I posted the revised calendar of due dates in the same folder as all of the other science project materials.  If you're not sure when your project is due, check it out.

Check the awesome imagery from NOAA of the blizzard:
NOAA Visualization Lab

The blizzard is hammering the southeast New England coast with 20-30 foot seas and a storm surge that peaked in some areas last evening at 5 feet! Amazing stuff.

The Battle for Coral Reefs

Kwajalein Atoll
Image Credit - Landsat 7

Here's an article in the current edition of WHOI's (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's) Oceanus Magazine on the delicate balance it takes to "maintain" a healthy coral reef and how that balance may/will be distrubed in a changing ocean.

Oceanus - Reefs

Painting the Sea

Earlier this year we learned about various microscopic inhabitants of the world; diatoms and coccolithophores, for example.

A NASA instrument picked up these wild colors in the Bering Sea in the neighborhood of the Pribiliof Islands.

Earth Observatory - Phytoplankton

New Marine Reserves

Palymra Atoll

President Obama recently created the largest protected marine reserve in the world.  Other countries have protected part of the ocean as well.  Now Gabon is following suit.

Here's an interesting article and a great map from National Geographic:

Marine Reserves

Here's the article from National Geographic:

Enlarging Remote islands Marine Reserve

The reserve was originally created by then President Bus around 2006.

Acidifying Ocean

Ocean Carbon Cycle

Here's an interesting blog post from Scientific American.  It includes a map of surface ocean pH.  Water chemistry is something we talked about extensively at the beginning of the year.

Blog - Acid Ocean Map

Touchdown!!

After an amazing journey, ESA's Rosetta Probe has planted its lander Philae on the surface of Comet 67P.  Check out the resources below:

- ScienceDaily.com article - ScienceDaily - Rosetta

The Pacific Garbage Patch

Masked Angelfish

The Pacific Ocean, and every ocean for that matter, is filled with floating trash.  Trash from careless people, trash from material washed overboard in storms, and derelict (lost/abandoned) fishing gear.

I just saw this article on the NOAA website.  It's about the NOAA Fisheries program to remove this debris from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine Sanctuary.  This is one of (if not the) the largest protected areas in the world ocean.

The article is a little disappointing due to the amount of debris found and removed each year.  However, take some time to explore the area using Google Earth.  Make sure you have the Panoramio layer turned on for some amazing pictures.

Read on for more...NOAA Article - Removing Derelict Fishing Gear

Here's the homepage for the sanctuary: http://www.fpir.noaa.gov/MNM/mnm_papahanaumokuakea.html

New Coral Species Discovered

Map of Gulf of the Farallones Nat. Marine Sanctuary
Image Credit - NOAA

California state and federal marine scientists have discovered new species of deep-sea coral while doing explorations near the Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank marine sanctuaries.

Read on for more...

NOAA - New Deep Sea Corals

Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary Home

Continent-Building in Action

Most people don't realize, but Iceland's largest volcanic eruption in the past few centuries has been taking place.  It's gone mostly unnoticed due to its remote location and that its really an effusive eruption - massive volumes of lava.

Bardarbunga Eruption

The Wasp

Later on this year we'll learn about how hurricanes have an effect on the world ocean and vice versa. Here's some pretty amazing images of Typhoon Vongfong...

Here's a picture of Typhoon Vongfong from the ISS.  Vongfong translates into English as, "The Wasp."  It's been wreaking havoc in the Mariana Islands and Okinawa.  Mainland Japan is next.

Typhoon Vongfong

Video from the ISS of Supertyphoon Vongfong

Here Come the Glorious Colors of Autumn!

Autumn Foliage - Reading, VT
Image Credit - Reading Government

I know this isn't oceanography, but I couldn't resist...autumn is my favorite season.  The colors and the crisp weather have a lot to do with that.

Here's a great article from NOAA on the 'true colors' of autumn.

NOAA Article - Autumn Foliage Colors

Wetness

Water Drop
Image Credit - Wikipedia

Very cool article here from ScienceDaily.com on why 'wet' feels 'wet.'

Science Daily - Wetness

Colorful Sand

Green Sand (Olivine) Beach

I think many Long Islanders just assume that every place in the world has fabulous wide quartz sand beaches just like our home island's ocean beaches.  While Long Island has been blessed with some of the most beautiful sandy beaches in the world along our Atlantic beaches, there isn't a huge variety of color in them.  Lots of that cream/white color of quartz.  The black of some magnetite and hornblende.  The red of garnet and some iron oxide concretions.  Along our bluffs we have some brilliantly colored clays.  Yes, we have been blessed with great beaches.

But in other parts of the world, there are some really colorful beaches.  Smithsonian Magazine showcases a few for us in this great article...
Smithsonian - Colorful Beaches

A Resumption of Whaling?

Image Courtesy of Animal Planet

I just saw this article on the Environmental News Service news feed.  Too bad.  Although I'm sure it's only for "scientific" purposes.

Japan's Resumption of Whaling