Beneath the Surface: Water and the Speed of Sound
Sound in the ocean travels about five times as fast as it does in the atmosphere. As with light, absorption plays a major role.
Beneath the Surface: Use of Sound by Marine Mammals
Marine mammals use sound in much the same way that animals on land use their sight and, to some extent, their hearing. It offers the best means by which to detect their prey at a distance.
Survivors: Predators and Prey
The ocean provides home to a dazzling variety of life. Yet there was a time when early life forms faced a multitude of struggles that threatened their ability to survive. The evolution of adaptations to overcome these challenges enabled life to endu...
Food for Thought: Primary Productivity and Climate
Phytoplankton play an important if indirect role in regulating the chemistry of the ocean and the atmosphere system. They do this through their contribution to the carbon cycle, taking carbon dioxide with them when they die and sink to the deep ocea...
Food for Thought: Global Patterns of Primary Productivity
Phytoplankton tend to concentrate in areas where the conditions for their growth and reproduction are optimal. Some of the most productive waters include the Antarctic and the North Atlantic during the springtime.
Due West: Ventura, California Marina
The Ventura, California marina was built in the 1950s with little or no understanding of the dredging that would be necessary to counteract the accumulation of sediment underwater. As a result the harbor has not functioned effectively for much of th...
On the Coast: Living with Erosion and Sea Level Rise
While the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are considered to be relatively gentle coastlines, erosional problems can pose problems in these areas, just as they do on the west coast. In Massachusetts, for example, the combination of erosion and sea level ris...
Food for Thought: Primary Productivity, Carbon Dioxide and the Role of Humans
Excessive amounts of nutrients applied to lawns, agricultural fields and farms can lead to what scientists call nuisance blooms of algae. When that matter decomposes and sinks into the deeper layers of the coastal ocean, it uses up the available oxy...
Survivors: The Oxygen Revolution
At one time, Earth's atmosphere had a far smaller percentage of oxygen than it does today. Only when that percentage began to rise, thanks to the oxygen production of photosynthetic plants and organisms, was it possible for animals to come into bein...
Making the Pieces Fit: Seafloor Spreading
Alfred Wegener's hypothesis was rejected by many who felt it lacked a credible mechanism which could explain the continental movement hypothesized by Wegener. The notion of seafloor spreading, which suggested that new seafloor develops at oceanic ri...