Ocean science news, explainers, and statistics covering marine environments, currents, climate, coasts, seafloor research, and the changing global ocean.
NOAA’s estuary food-pyramid material starts with a simple observation that governs ponds, rivers, marshes and seas: every bite carries energy that entered the ecosystem earlier. An aquatic food chain traces one possible route for that energy. A tiny alga may be eaten by a zooplankton animal, which may be eaten by a small fish, which…
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At the edge of every wave, a busy animal community is easy to miss. Many beach residents are small, burrow quickly, or emerge after dark. Others arrive to feed, nest, rest, or pass through during migration. A beach is therefore more than open sand. It is a changing habitat shaped by tides, wind, salt and…
One hundred twenty-nine people were aboard USS Thresher when the nuclear-powered attack submarine was lost in the Atlantic on April 10, 1963. The loss remains the deadliest accident in U.S. submarine history. It also left a lasting technical and human legacy, because the Navy rebuilt crucial parts of its approach to submarine design, repair, testing,…
The Atlantic Ocean once hid its largest landscape in plain sight. Beneath the waves lay a long mountain chain, deep plains and a valley running along the middle of the ridge. In the early 1950s, Marie Tharp saw the clue in six ship-track profiles. Each showed a V-shaped dip near the center. Together, the marks…
