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Sep 30, 2010

New Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents Discovered in Middle of Atlantic

An area of hydrothermal vents has been discovered deep below the sea in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The discovery of the vents, which lie nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) below the ocean surface, was a surprise to scientists as the area in which they were found, about 300...

Sep 30, 2010

Creatures of the Frozen Deep: Antarctica's Sea Life

Ice fish (Image credit: British Antarctic Survey.) This ghostly-looking fish has no red blood cells. Glycerol in its blood acts as antifreeze, allowing the fish to stay alive in the frigid Antarctic conditions. Sea Spider (Image credit: British Antarctic Survey.) Arachnophobes beware: More species of sea spider are found around...

Sep 30, 2010

What's So Special About the Date 10/10/10?

On 07/07/07, couples ran to wedding chapels, and 08/08/08 was considered especially auspicious by the Chinese. Then Sept. 9, 2009 was heralded for its mathematical symmetry. Those dates signaled the end of repeating, single-digit dates, at least for another 90 years. Which begs the question: Is there anything special about...

Sep 30, 2010

Surprises Revealed in Wake of Massive Haiti Quake

Identifying the fault responsible for Haiti's massive Jan. 12 earthquake seemed like an open-and-shut case After the temblor, the well-known Enriquillo fault was quickly blamed, but new data reveal a more complicated picture. The magnitude-7.0 earthquake involved not one, but three faults, which sent tsunami waves crashing onto shore by...

Sep 30, 2010

Paula Becomes Hurricane in Caribbean

Tropical Storm Paula strengthened into Hurricane Paula today (Oct. 12), becoming the ninth hurricane this year. Paula has maximum wind speeds of 75 mph (120 kph) -- a Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength -- and poses a threat to the eastern Yucatan peninsula and western Cuba....

Sep 30, 2010

Tsunamis Send Mysterious Waves into Atmosphere

Tsunamis leave a destructive and often deadly stamp on land, but they also make a surprising and poorly understood impression high above the Earth. Now scientists are turning their gaze upward in the hunt for signs of these as-yet mysterious atmospheric gravity waves generated by tsunamis, in an effort to...

Sep 30, 2010

Mapping History: U.S. Marks Civil War's 150th with Historical Collection

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in 2011, the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) has put together a historical collection of maps and documents prepared by the U.S. Coast Survey during the war. The almost 400-piece collection, called Charting a More Perfect Union, will be...

Sep 30, 2010

Fish Discovered 4.5 Miles Deep in Ocean

A new fish species has been discovered in a deep area of the ocean previously thought to be devoid of fish. Researchers uncovered the new species of snailfish a bizarre, transparent-looking creature with tiny dots in place of eyes and wide, fan-like fins an astonishing 23,000 feet (7,000 meters) below...

Sep 30, 2010

Secret Behind Formation of Volcanic 'Ring of Fire' Found

A large chunk of Earth's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in a narrow zone around the Pacific Ocean known as the Ring of Fire. Scientists are only just beginning to understand why this tectonic explosivity is so confined. A new study has uncovered part of the answer for why the...

Sep 30, 2010

What's the Difference Between a Typhoon and a Super-Typhoon?

Super-typhoon Megi made landfall early today (Oct. 18) in the Philippines, where the storm is known as Juan, and its wind speeds placed the storm in the highest classification for hurricanes Category 5. Spanning more than 370 miles (600 kilometers), the mega-storm sustained winds of 178 mph (287 km per...

Sep 30, 2010

Exploring Africa's Cape of Good Hope

Cape Good Hope Album (Image credit: Linda and Dr. Dick Buscher) The Cape of Good Hope is one of the great natural places on Earth. Here at the southern tip of the African continent, two great oceans come together to form a most varied and unique ecological environment. Along with...

Sep 30, 2010

Dust Blows Over Egypt, Libya and the Mediterranean Sea

A few days after dust plumes blew off the coast of Libya, another dust storm spreads over Egypt, Libya and the Mediterranean Sea. NASA's Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of the dust storm on Oct. 1, 2010. The dust is thickest over central Libya, and thinner, but still discernible...

Sep 30, 2010

Polar Vacation: Tourism with a Conservation Twist

The most exciting moment of the tour came when the boat met a school of blue whales in the Arctic Ocean. We saw at least three blue whales, which are the largest species ever to live on earth, and we watched them in the brilliant midnight sun, which was extremely...

Sep 30, 2010

Gallery: New Species of the Amazon

Amazon Anaconda (Image credit: José Maria Fernández Díaz-Formentí.)Food coma: This enormous anaconda looks like it just enjoyed some lunch. The massive snakes, which can grow to 13 feet (4 meters) or longer, are the first new species of anaconda discovered since 1936. These mainly aquatic boas catch, suffocate, and eat...

Sep 30, 2010

Two Russian Volcanoes Erupt

Russia's Shiveluch Volcano erupted today (Oct. 28), sending an ash plume 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) into the air, which was visible from space. This natural-color satellite image shows the light brown plume rising from Shiveluch and out over the Kamchatkan coast and Kamchatskiy Zaliv (Gulf of Kamchatka) of Russia. Beneath...