Oceans

More Stories in Oceans

  1. A photo of a person standing next to a snow mobile and a stack of supplies with tracks in the snow disappearing into the distance.
    Earth

    A massive cavern beneath a West Antarctic glacier is teeming with life

    A subglacial river has carved out the cavern beneath the Kamb Ice Stream, a West Antarctic glacier, and may be supplying nutrients necessary for life.

    By Douglas Fox
  2. An underwater photo of two researchers diving beside a female whale shark.
    Oceans

    ‘Jet packs’ and ultrasounds could reveal secrets of pregnant whale sharks

    Only one pregnant whale shark has ever been studied. New underwater techniques using ultrasound and blood tests could change that.

    By Brianna Randall
  3. A photo of a remotely operated vehicle exploring the Mariana Trench. It appears as a cube hovering over a lighter blue patch surrounded by darkness.
    Oceans

    50 years ago, researchers discovered a leak in Earth’s oceans

    An analysis of oceanic rocks hinted that ocean water drains into Earth’s mantle. How much makes it back into the ocean remains unclear.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  4. A photo of several tents set up on in Antarctica.
    Climate

    Many Antarctic glaciers are hemorrhaging ice. This one is healing its cracks

    Scientists have explored the recesses of an Antarctic glacier that is currently stable, helping improve predictions of the continent’s fate.

    By Douglas Fox
  5. photo of a seal with a plastic bottle in the ocean
    Oceans

    50 years ago, scientists discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

    In 1973, plastic bottles adrift in the North Pacific alarmed scientists. Fifty years later, more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic litter the area.

    By Demian Perry
  6. A photo of a researchers camp on Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier.
    Climate

    Rapid melting is eroding vulnerable cracks in Thwaites Glacier’s underbelly

    Thwaites is melting slower than thought, but the worst of it is concentrated in underbelly cracks, threatening the Antarctica glacier’s stability.

    By Douglas Fox
  7. An illustration of a large, predatory fish known as coelacanths and eel-like conodonts swimming in the ocean.
    Paleontology

    In the wake of history’s deadliest mass extinction, ocean life may have flourished

    Ocean life may have recovered in just a million years after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, fossils from South China suggest.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  8. A purple octopus as it sits on the ocean floor.
    Science & Society

    Sea life offers a lens for self-exploration in ‘How Far the Light Reaches’

    In a collection of essays profiling 10 marine animals, author Sabrina Imbler mixes in stories of their own family, self-discovery, sexuality and healing.

    By Aina Abell
  9. An underwater photo of a tiger shark with an orange camera on its side
    Ecosystems

    Tiger sharks helped discover the world’s largest seagrass prairie

    Instrument-equipped sharks went where divers couldn’t to survey the Bahama Banks seagrass ecosystem.

    By Nikk Ogasa