Oceans

More Stories in Oceans

  1. Manila, Philippines
    Climate

    Coastal cities around the globe are sinking

    Of 99 coastal cities, nearly one-third are sinking in some places at more than a centimeter per year, making them more vulnerable to rising seas.

    By Katherine Kornei
  2. map of light pollution in the North Sea
    Oceans

    Even the sea has light pollution. These new maps show its extent

    Coastal cities and offshore development create enough light to potentially alter behavior of tiny organisms dozens of meters below the surface.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  3. illustration in the shape of the Earth showing a train, a car, airplanes, felled trees, an oil spill, and other examples of humans' impact on their environment
    Climate

    How did we get here? The roots and impacts of the climate crisis

    Over the last century and a half, scientists have built a strong case for the roots and impacts of human-caused climate change.

    By Alexandra Witze
  4. underwater photo of an octopus garden on the sea floor
    Oceans

    Some deep-sea octopuses aren’t the long-haul moms scientists thought they were

    Off California’s coast, some octopuses lay eggs in the warmer water of geothermal springs in the “Octopus Garden,” speeding up their development.

    By Katherine Kornei
  5. aerial photo of a U.S. Coast Guard boat collecting spilled oil from Deepwater Horizon
    Oceans

    Sunlight helps clean up oil spills in the ocean more than previously thought

    Solar radiation dissolved as much as 17 percent of the surface oil slick spilled after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, a new study suggests.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  6. a group of Arctic sponges
    Animals

    Deep-sea Arctic sponges feed on fossilized organisms to survive

    Slow-moving sponges, living deep in the Arctic Ocean where no currents deliver food, scavenge a carpet of long-dead critters.

    By Richard Kemeny
  7. illustration of Earth showing the Blob in the eastern Pacific Ocean
    Oceans

    The past’s extreme ocean heat waves are now the new normal

    Marine heat waves that were rare more than a century ago now routinely occur in more than half of global ocean, suggesting we’ve hit a “point of no return.”

    By Carolyn Gramling
  8. photo of Thwaites Glacier
    Climate

    Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier ice shelf could collapse within five years

    The loss of Thwaites’ buttressing ice shelf could hasten the demise of the “Doomsday Glacier” and raise the risk of dramatic sea level rise.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  9. image of sea ice in the Southern Ocean taken from the window of an airplane
    Oceans

    The Southern Ocean is still swallowing large amounts of humans’ carbon dioxide emissions

    A 2018 study suggested the ocean surrounding Antarctica might be taking up less CO₂ than thought, but new data suggest it is still a carbon sink.

    By Carolyn Gramling