Ocean science news, explainers, and statistics covering marine environments, currents, climate, coasts, seafloor research, and the changing global ocean.
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology has reported a rare deep-sea technology test near Minamitori Island, where the scientific drilling vessel Chikyu recovered mineral-rich sediment during a rare earth mud mining system trial in Japan’s Pacific exclusive economic zone. The operation matters because the mud may contain elements used in electric vehicles, high-performance magnets,…
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A study in Nature has revealed a vast whale graveyard deep in the southeastern Indian Ocean. Researchers led by Xiaotong Peng of the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering at the Chinese Academy of Sciences documented hundreds of fossil whale remains and several modern carcasses across the Diamantina Zone, a remote region of ridges and…
A study in Nature found that climate-driven iceberg traffic is carrying the effects of warming glaciers into deep Arctic ecosystems. The work links glacier change near the surface to new hard-bottom habitat on the seafloor, where life can take hold nearly 2,500 meters below the ocean surface. Researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute and…
The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project has put a stark number on one of Earth science’s biggest blind spots: only 28% of the ocean floor has been mapped with acoustic precision. That leaves most of the planet’s seabed described through broader satellite-based estimates, even as detailed maps of Mars and the Moon can show features…
