Nearly a month has passed since the wounded tanker Prestige spilled thousands of tons of heavy oil into the Atlantic and fouled dozens of Spanish beaches. But anxious residents of coastal Spain and Portugal remain on high alert – wondering where and when the noxious crude will wash ashore next.
In recent years, tanker accidents have ruined fisheries and tourist beaches from Alaska to France. But do oil spills always have to end in catastrophe? Perhaps the most vulnerable beaches and coastal
An especially cold winter in Europe, lots of snow in Scandinavia or lots of rain in the Mediterranean are all symptoms of what meteorologists call the North Atlantic Oscillation, but a group of Penn State researchers has gone beyond the symptoms to try to decipher the dynamics of this atmospheric pattern.
“Some scientists argue that the impact of the NAO on global climate is comparable to El Nino,” says Dr. Sukyoung Lee, associate professor of meteorology. “However, most of the scientific co
DOE News Release Embargoed for release December 6, 2002 INEEL geoscientist to present NAPL contaminant modeling advance at AGU Meeting By modifying the mathematical theory describing the relationship between permeability, saturation, and pressure in a multiple fluid system, researchers can now more accurately predict the movement of non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) contaminants in the subsurface. New calculations account for residual NAPL that remains in the vadose zone-forming a long-term source f
The direct injection of unwanted carbon dioxide deep into the ocean is one suggested strategy to help control rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and mitigate the effects of global warming. But, like the problems associated with the long-term storage of nuclear waste, finding a safe place to sequester the carbon may be more difficult than scientists first anticipated.
Because the atmosphere interacts with the oceans, the net uptake of carbon dioxide and the oceans’ sequestration capac
When a property is suspected of having contaminated soil or groundwater, it is usually a lengthy and costly process to confirm the presence of pollutants and to delineate the extent of the contamination. Soon that process may be simplified considerably.
University of Rhode Island geophysicist Reinhard Frohlich, an associate professor of geosciences, has devised a cost-effective, new method for finding underground contaminants that will reduce drilling and digging beneath the surface. By inse
In an unexpected meeting of the minds, two Dartmouth professors from disparate fields have come together to solve a problem: how to make accurate models of remote landscapes from photographs.
Arjun Heimsath, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences, and Hany Farid, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, have found a way to create three-dimensional models of remote regions using only two-dimensional digital photographs. Once built, these models make it easier for researchers to predict landsl
A new model of mid-ocean ridge propagation: Introducing the process zone
The site of extensive volcanic activity and sea-floor spreading, the Galapagos Rise in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean has yielded groundbreaking research results for the field of plate tectonics. Jacqueline Floyd and her colleagues, all of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, are introducing a new model for the process of mid-ocean ridge propagation (lengthening), which is responsibl
In the Prati del Sirente plain in the heart of the Abruzzo mountains, a small circular lake is clearly visible. A prominent ridge encircles the lake. The peculiar appearance of the lake drew the attention of this papers first author (Jens Ormö) when working in Pescara between 1999 and 2002. Jens did at that time a European Union Marie Curie post-doc as an impact geologist at the International Research School of Planetary Sciences (IRSPS), Universita d’Annunzio. After the years of research that follo
A NASA study finds that perennial sea ice in the Arctic is melting faster than previously thought–at a rate of 9 percent per decade. If these melting rates continue for a few more decades, the perennial sea ice will likely disappear entirely within this century, due to rising temperatures and interactions between ice, ocean and the atmosphere that accelerate the melting process.
Perennial sea ice floats in the polar oceans and remains at the end of the summer, when the ice cover is at its
Collapse in the mines can be foreseen in advance and the caving-in location and time can be identified. This has become possible due to the basic research carried out by scientists of the Ioffe Physical & Engineering Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences. Specialists of INTERUNIS company have undertaken to embody the above concepts in a prototype model of the device.
The system will consist of the ’’case on wheels’’ containing the computer and signal processing cards, and several sensors (
The discharge of groundwater to coastal waters represents an important source of dissolved nutrients and contaminants that may affect chemical and biological processes in coastal ecosystems. In a journal article published in a recent issue of Limnology and Oceanography, URI Graduate School of Oceanography chemical oceanographers Roger P. Kelly and S. Bradley Moran describe how they used radium isotopes as tracers to determine seasonal changes in groundwater input to the Pettasquamscutt estuary from
Geologists may have to revise their ideas about what goes on in the Earth’s interior, following the publication today of new research in the journal ’Nature’. It appears that contrary to previous belief, part of the interior has remained undisturbed for at least two-and-a-half billion years, in spite of the massive forces at work inside the planet.
Like a saucepan of thick syrup being heated on the stove, huge convection currents within the Earth, generated by heat from the co
A new array of ocean robots has begun working deep in the Indian Ocean to help scientists understand Australia’s changing climate.
“This is a key region for the global climate system and installation of the robots will provide our best coverage to begin to understand how the Indian Ocean affects our climate,” says CSIRO’s Dr Gary Meyers.
Cycling between the surface and a depth of two kilometres every 10 days, the ocean robots are sampling conditions in a region thought to
Scientists at UCL have recreated earthquakes in the laboratory for the first time allowing them to better understand the origin of the largest and most violent earthquakes.
This is the first time scientists have been able to generate and observe deep and intermediate focus earthquakes in the laboratory, recreating the exact pressure and temperature conditions of the deep earth. Their results have helped elucidate the origin of some of the largest and most violent earthquakes to occur on ear
In October, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) completed the first measurement of the solar ultraviolet radiation spectrum over the duration of an 11 year solar cycle, a period marked by cyclical shifts in the Sun’s activity. This long measurement record by two instruments aboard UARS will give researchers better insight into how fluctuations in the Sun’s energy affect ozone and the Earth’s climate. In turn, the dataset gives scientists tools to document the influence of ma
Study by researchers from Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., and Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., to be published in the Nov. 14 issue of Nature
El Niño, the pattern that can wreak havoc on climate conditions around the world, is like a beacon, pulsating through time on a 2,000 year cycle, according to a new study by scientists from Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.; Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., and from the NOAA Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder, Colo., that is being publis
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