Rivers & Oceans, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 9, 2021

Hunks of oceanic crust are wedged inside Earth's mantle

In Geology 101, Earth's interior is divided into neat layers, like a sugar-coated jawbreaker. But it turns out that parts of the planet's middle layer might be more like peanuts in a sea of caramel. Seismic data reveal that there may be hunks of oceanic crust stuck deep within the...

Jun 23, 2021

Project to map entire ocean floor by 2030 passes 20% mark

About 70% of Earth's surface is covered in water, and researchers are trying to map every last inch of it. On June 21 (that's World Hydrography Day, in case you forgot to update your Calendar of Very Nerdy Events), a group of international researchers announced that they are about one-fifth...

Sep 10, 2021

Spectacular valleys and cliffs hidden beneath the North Sea

Like a bowl of spaghetti noodles spilled across the floor of the North Sea, a vast array of hidden tunnel valleys wind and meander across what was once an ice-covered landscape. These valleys are remnants of ancient rivers that once drained water from melting ice sheets. Now, scientists have achieved...

Nov 9, 2021

28,000 tons of COVID-19 waste now swirling around in our oceans

During the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 28,000 tons (25,000 metric tons) of pandemic-related plastic waste, such as masks and gloves, have ended up in the ocean, according to a new study. That's more than 2,000 double-decker buses worth of waste, The Guardian reported. And within a few years, a portion...

Dec 27, 2021

11 strange things that washed ashore in 2021

Beaches across the globe saw their share of weird blobs wash ashore. Sometimes this shoreline debris was small and weird, like a tangled rope coral that found its way onto a beach in Texas, or the tar balls that dotted Israel's Mediterranean coastline in February. Other times, the organisms numbered...

Feb 5, 2022

The deep seafloor is filled with entire branches of life yet to be discovered

The deep-ocean floor is teeming with undiscovered life-forms that help to regulate Earth's climate, a new study finds. Researchers sequenced DNA from deep-sea sediments around the world and found that there is at least three times more life on the seafloor than there is higher up in the ocean. What's...

Feb 15, 2022

4-story rogue wave that randomly appeared in the Pacific Ocean is the 'most extreme' ever detected

A four-story-tall rogue wave that briefly reared up in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Canada in 2020 was the most extreme version of the freaky phenomenon ever recorded, scientists now say. Rogue waves, also known as freak or killer waves, are massive waves that appear in the open...

Feb 17, 2022

Historic sea-level rise predicted by NASA and government task force

As climate change continues to progress, so will its effects. In a new collaborative report, NASA and other U.S. government agencies have found that sea levels will rise up to a foot by 2050. The report, which comes from a sea level rise task force that includes a number of...

Mar 2, 2022

Stunning satellite image shows immense power of monster 7-story waves in Portugal

NASA has released a stunning image of Portugal’s coastline showing the immense power of massive, seven-story-high waves as they crashed toward the shore. The image, taken in 2020, was captured on the same day that an 18-year-old surfer reportedly rode a record-breaking 101.4-foot-high (30.9 meters) wave in the area. The...

Apr 5, 2022

Amazon: Earth's mightiest river

The Amazon River is a massive, intricate water system weaving through one of the most vital and complex ecosystems in the world — the Amazon rainforest in South America. It is by far the mightiest river on Earth in terms of volume and width — reaching a span of nearly...

Apr 10, 2022

Thousands of new viruses discovered in the ocean

More than 5,000 new virus species have been identified in the world's oceans, according to a new study. The study researchers analyzed tens of thousands of water samples from around the globe, hunting for RNA viruses, or viruses that use RNA as their genetic material. The novel coronavirus, for instance,...

May 31, 2022

The world's biggest clone is a 77-square-mile 'immortal' meadow of seagrass

Scientists have discovered the world's biggest clone in Australia: A massive network of seagrass meadows that covers more than 77 square miles (200 square kilometers). The network of meadows is actually one single plant that has been continually cloning itself for almost 4,500 years. Researchers found the enormous clone while...

Jun 9, 2022

Scientists discover viruses that secretly rule the world's oceans

Thousands of mysterious viruses that were recently discovered lurking in the world's oceans may exert huge influence over the ecosystems, in part by reprogramming the hosts they infect, scientists reported. The new research, published Thursday (June 9) in the journal Science, focuses on viruses that contain RNA, a molecular cousin...

Jul 19, 2022

'Unlucky' creatures that enter rare Red Sea brine pools are immediately stunned to death

Rare deep-sea brine pools discovered in the Red Sea may hold clues to environmental upheavals in the region that span millennia, and could even shed light on the origins of life on Earth, a new study finds. Deep-sea brine pools are extraordinarily salty or hypersaline lakes that form on the...

Jul 22, 2022

Why do seashells sound like the ocean?

If you ever took a trip to the beach as a child, it's possible you will have been encouraged to hold a shell to your ear so you can hear the ocean. But why is it possible to hear sounds resembling the sea inside a shell? Are we somehow listening...