Awesome Picture

Take a look at this amazing picture, courtesy of James Morgan, Cunard Line.

It's a picture of the ship's captain standing on its bulbous bow.  A bulbous bow decreases drag on the ship and achieves a higher fuel efficiency.

Here's the link to the article, which has some additional pictures:
http://twistedsifter.com/2014/04/standing-on-the-bulbous-bow-of-queen-mary-2/

Forecasting Sea Ice

Latest Snow and Ice Chart - Credit NOAA


I've heard of and read many sea ice observations/summaries, but I don't remember every reading a sea ice forecast.  The linked article refers to Arctic ice forecasts for the coming melting season and their accuracy (or lack thereof).

Science Daily - Forecasting Ice

Major Oil Spill - Houston Ship Channel

Damaged Barge.  Image Credit - ABC


A tanker and barge collided in the Houston ship channel around midday yesterday.  The barge was seriously damaged and began leaking some of its 900,000+ gallons of marine fuel oil.  Reports estimate the breached tank having a volume of about 170,000 gallons max.

As a result of the spill the channel remains closed and the 'traffic jam' of ships is increasing since there is currently no traffic into our out of Galveston Bay.

Read on for more details:
Environmental News Service - Houston Spill

European Climate

Image credit - ucsd.edu


We recently finished studying ocean circulation - surface currents and thermohaline circulation.  I just came across this interesting article regarding climate in Europe over the past millenium.

Science Daily - Warming Europe

The Sky Is Blue (Well, not always...)

Image Credit - NASA MODIS; Via accuweather.com

Yes, the sky does appear blue.  Blue, that is, except when it's filled with wind-borne dust.  Check out this awesome image from NASA's Earth Observatory site.

"How do dust and the oceans have anything to do with each other?" you might be wondering.  Well, wind-borne dust (otherwise known as Aeolian Transport) contributes significantly to the formation of marine sediments, especially in remote areas.

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