The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
NEARLY two kilometres inside the surface of the Pacific Ocean, molten magma from the Earth's mantle wells up. This process is taking place along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, which is pushing even the Pacific plate apart from the Juan de Fuca plate. The rate at which the plate is …
FISH in the Sea of Japan have been found to have high levels of toxic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBS) and dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT). A team of researchers led by Shinsuke Tanabe, professor at the Ehime University, Matsuyama, Japan, found blackfish, striped dolphins and killer whales with high contents …
STUDIES have revealed that Cogema, the operator of the state-owned La Hague reprocessing plant, has installed inadequate equipment off the plant's discharge pipe, 30 metres under the sea, in a futile attempt to prevent the routine discharge of radioactive particles into the ocean. According to Greenpeace, an international environmental group, …
THE British government have planned to press for a complete ban on the dumping of steel oil installations in the sea. The proposal will come during meeting of environment ministers in Sintra, Portugal. According to Michael Meacher, UK's environment minister, the country is all set to propose a "near-zero option …
ABOUT two-thirds of the world's population lives within 60 km of some coast or the other, a proportion that matches the Earth's surface covered by water. That 1998 is the International Year of the Ocean only adds to the importance to the watery part of the planet. Many nations depend …
The ocean covered about half the surface area of other continents seventy million years ago. However, Australia managed to stay dry. How did it happen? Geophysicist Michael Gurnis of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, USA, may have the answer. During this period, Australia was 250 metres higher than …
fifty five million years ago, one trillion tonnes of methane suddenly burst out of the ocean, shooting up the temperatures and killing thousands of species in the ocean depths. The first evidence of this prehistoric event was unearthed by researchers in 1991. But they were not sure of the causes …
a coalition of Scottish environmental groups under the banner of the Scottish Wildlife and Countryside Link (swcl) has called for a review of the environmental impacts of marine salmon fishing in Scotland. The main cause for concern is the wide and indiscriminate use of chemicals to control sea lice, parasites …
deficiency of iron in the microscopic plant-like organisms that populate the seas - called phytoplankton - may have interfered in the carbon dioxide cycle and contributed to global warming. Scientists are now investigating reversal of this process. Confirmation of this fact will provide answers that may help combat global warming. …
prattipati Shivshankar Rao from the National Institute of Oceanography ( nio ), Goa, has become the first Indian scientist to reach the ocean floor 3,680 metres under the sea level. On invitation from the Rutgers University, usa , Rao joined a three-week long diving cruise expedition into the depths of …
jorge Sarmiento and Corinne Le Quere of Princeton University in New Jersey, us, have observed that warmer oceans are more stratified and cause the ocean circulation system to slow down. As a result, they absorb much less carbon dioxide (co2)
a new United Nations ( un ) agency, set up primarily to resolve conflicts of the sea, has taken shape. Inaugurated mid-October in Hamburg by the un secretary general, Boutros Boutros Ghali, the tribunal will administer the un Convention on the Law of the Sea ( unclos ) to solve …
The Gulf waters are turning murkier day by day with illegal waste being dumped by ships in sea, mak ing it unfit for marine life. Wastes from large vessels, which sail through the Gulf or anchor there, find their way into the sea in violation of local rules. The sea …
in view of a recent discovery, the models used to estimate earth's response to climate change stand for a rethink. While studying the effect of marine life on global warming, scientists found that the role of oceans in carbon fixation had actually been overestimated. The new findings suggest that half …
a jet of molten lava arises from the womb of the earth, pierces through the seabed and gives rise to islands amidst a turbulent ocean. In a rare feat of scientific endeavour, the birth throes of an emerging island in the ocean were witnessed for the first time by scientists …
The passing of electric current can turn metal into coral reefs. Thomas Goreau, president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, a New York-based reef protection organisation, sparked off the idea of passing electric current through sea water and causing calcium and magnesium to accumulate at the metal cathode. The minerals …
a study of sea defences in northern Vietnam, carried out by researchers from the University of East Anglia and the Mangrove Ecosystem Research Centre in Hanoi, Vietnam, shows that mangroves are more effective than concrete constructions at keeping out the sea. They are now known to soften the impact of …
the world's first base for launching satellites at sea is being constructed at Long Beach in California, us. Work began early in August on the first ships which would launch rockets safely and cheaply on the ocean. Long Beach will act as the headquarters and a base port from which …
Garbage floating in the oceans could pose a threat to marine life. One such site is a remote group of islands in the Indian ocean, 1,500 km southwest of Jakarta, Indonesia, where the population of green turtles inhabiting the shores is endangered. Thousands of rubber flip-flops are being washed onto …
