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 …
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)
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 …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
a technique for creating underwater images using hydrophones (a device that detects sound waves transmitted though water) instead of video cameras is being developed by a professor at the University of California ( uoc ), us . The acoustic daylight imaging system ( adis ) may also be able to …
By the end of the next century, the tiny island nation of Maldives could simply disappear under the sea. An expected increase of 50 cm in the sea level would swallow the island nation sometime in the next century. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there could be …
MARINE geologists in the us are currently being deluged with sea-floor data collected by two satellites -the us Geosat and the European Space Agency's ERS-l. These satellite images have revealed hitherto unknown features of the ocean floor, which could question the basic premise of existing geological theories. The two satellites …
RESEARCH on climatic shifts and patterns acquires new dimensions every time scientists add a new reason to the list of factors responsible for these changes. The latest of these proposes that the waxing and waning of the sun - in a regular II -year cycle - may be responsible for …
