News by Subject Earth Science

The formation of deep water, which is an important component of the climate system, takes place in only a few parts of the ocean: In the subpolar North Atlantic and in a few places in the Southern Hemisphere. There, the so-called Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) is formed. While today AABW is circulating northwards into the other ocean basins, results of a new study show, that this was different under extreme climatic conditions in the past.

New study is the first to use machine learning to project migration patterns resulting from sea-level rise. Researchers found the impact of rising oceans will ripple across the country, beyond coastal areas at risk of flooding, as affected people move inland. Popular relocation choices will include land-locked cities such as Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Denver and Las Vegas. The model also predicts suburban and rural areas in the Midwest will experience disproportionately large influx of people relative to their smaller local populations.

The shipping sector has potential to gain profit by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Recent research shows that shipping companies and ports can achieve cost savings by, for example, investing in digital route planning or equipping vessels with solar panels.

In the warmer and brighter shallow waters of Kāne'ohe Bay, O'ahu Hawaiian rice coral host more heat-tolerant microbes in their tissues compared to rice coral communities in cooler and darker deep waters, according to research published recently by scientists at the University of Hawai'i. While this is advantageous in the short term--helping corals weather a heat wave, for example--the price they pay is lower nutrition after the storm.

In findings published in the Journal of the Royal Society Open Science, researchers have detailed the discovery of a tactile-sensory system stowed within the suction disc of remora, believed to enable the fish to acutely sense contact pressure with host surfaces and gauge ocean forces in order to determine when to initiate their attachment, as well as adjust their hold on hosts while traversing long distances.

Japanese researchers used a Global Navigation Satellite System-Acoustic ranging combination technique to detect signals due to slow slip events in the Nankai Trough with seafloor deformations of 5 cm or more and durations on the order of one year. These events generally occurred on the shallow sides of regions with strong interplate coupling and represent variations in interplate friction conditions, which may help simulate the occurrence of megathrust earthquakes originating from this subduction zone and contribute earthquake disaster prevention.