by The University of Texas Marine Science Institute
The goal of Science and the Sea is to convey an understanding of the sea and its myriad life forms to everyone, so that they, too, can fully appreciate this amazing resource.
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12/17/2023
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August 11, 2024
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"> <img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.scienceandthesea.org/sites/default/files/styles/small/public/images/stories/730624_Climate%20Ripples_360%20px%20width.png?itok=DY4r1Cdw" width="152" height="180" alt="" /> </div> <p>The classic example of chaos theory is called the butterfly effect: If a butterfly flaps its wings over China, it creates ripples in the air that might eventually trigger storms over the Americas. Something similar may be playing out over the South China Sea and the surrounding land: Changes in climate conditions there may influence the rest of the world.</p><p>The South China Sea covers almost one and a half million square miles. It’s bounded by Southeast Asia and the islands of the Philippines and Indonesia. Influenced by climate change in Asia, its waters are warming faster than most of the world’s oceans.</p><p>Scientists say that’s influencing conditions not only across the region, but worldwide. There’s more evaporation from the warmer waters, which is changing circulation patterns in the atmosphere above it, for example. These patterns interact with others. That creates a ripple effect that can travel around the globe—like the ripples caused by that pesky butterfly.</p><p>Climate models suggest possible impacts on specific regions as the South China Sea and the surrounding area get even warmer. The timing and strength of El Niño and La Niña might change, for example. Ditto for the monsoons in Asia. The Americas might see greater extremes in temperature and precipitation, parts of Asia might have more spring and summer droughts, and sea ice could change in both the Arctic and the Antarctic—some possibly chaotic results of our changing climate.</p>
August 4, 2024
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"> <img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.scienceandthesea.org/sites/default/files/styles/small/public/images/stories/730524_Phantom%20Giant_360%20px%20width_MBARI.jpg?itok=XX-xPmuq" width="180" height="102" alt="" /> </div> <p>If you’re afraid of the dark, you should avoid the “midnight zone” in the oceans. It’s so far down that no sunlight ever reaches it. The zone’s inhabitants include creatures with bulging eyes and big, sharp teeth, and some with bright, wiggling “lures” to attract prey.</p><p>One inhabitant also looks like the stuff of nightmares, but it’s a threat only to small fish and other tiny creatures: <em>Stygiomedusa gigantea</em>—the giant phantom jelly. Its “body”—known as a bell—is about three feet across. It can expand to several times that size, though, perhaps to wrap up its prey.</p><p>Four “arms” trail away from the bell. They can be more than 30 feet long, and they wave through the currents like a ripped-up bedsheet in a summer breeze.</p><p>The arms are classified as “mouth” arms—they sense prey in the dark ocean, then grab it and pull it up to the stomach. But unlike many jellies, the arms don’t have stingers.</p><p>The giant phantom jelly has been spotted in all the world’s oceans except the Arctic. But it’s not easy to see because it usually stays deep—anywhere from a few thousand feet to about four miles. In fact, since the first one was reported, in 1899, scientists have logged only a few more than a hundred confirmed sightings.</p><p>Despite the lack of sightings, biologists say the giants may be common—but hidden in the dark waters of the midnight zone.</p>
July 28, 2024
<div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"> <img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.scienceandthesea.org/sites/default/files/styles/small/public/images/stories/730424_Marine%20Lingo_360%20px%20width.jpg?itok=llSRfgar" width="180" height="160" alt="" /> </div> <p>In a classic Jules Verne novel, the submarine <em>Nautilus</em> travels “20,000 leagues under the sea.” You might think that “20,000 leagues” indicated the sub’s depth. But you’d need a really deep ocean for that: a league is three miles, so 20,000 leagues is 60,000 miles. The title tells us how far the <em>Nautilus</em> traveled through the oceans.</p><p>Over the centuries, sailors and mapmakers created new units of measure, with new words to describe them, for plying the world’s oceans. Some of the words have been heaved overboard, but some are still in use.</p><p>One of the lesser-used units is the fathom, which does indicate depth. It comes from a word in Old English that means “outstretched arms.” That’s because a fathom originally was based on the span of a man’s fully spread arms. Eventually, its length was set at six feet. So the deepest point in the ocean is 6,000 fathoms down.</p><p>One unit that’s still in common use is the nautical mile—1.15 land-based miles. It marks the size of one minute of latitude—the location north or south of the equator.</p><p>And it’s the basis for the word knot: one knot is one nautical mile per hour. It originated in the 17th century. Sailors estimated their speed by throwing out a piece of wood attached to a rope. Knots were tied in the rope at specific lengths. Sailors counted the number of knots that spooled out over a given time—a knotty way to measure speed.</p>
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