Posts tagged oceans
Genesis II: Extraterrestrial Oceans Could Host Life by Ray Villard
At least six outer moons have subsurface oceans that could potentially be cozy places for life: Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Enceladus and Triton. Each of them could have as much if not more water than found in all of Earth’s oceans. In fact Earth is a comparatively dry world.
I say go go go to Europa!
Artist Claudio Garzón was building a curriculum for a summer art course in Los Angeles when the idea struck. He remembered reading about a soldier in Afghanistan who created action figures out of bottle caps so he tried it himself.
Only instead of bottle caps, Garzón used plastic debris gathered from walks along the Los Angeles River. Dubbing his initial sculptures “Plastikobots,” he began teaching art students how to make their own with the intention that they’d learn about ocean conservation at the same time.
“When the signs are out there, how could you turn a blind eye?” he said. Here’s a look at Garzón’s steampunk art made from plastic trash.
Incredible artwork — the turtles are spectacular. For more of Garzón’s steampunk creations, check out the slide show…
Two-Thirds Marine Species Remain Unknown: Between 700,000 and one million species live in the world’s oceans, according to a thorough new analysis, which also estimated that between one-third and two-thirds of those species have yet to be named and described. Read more…
i’m sure you’ve never thought about it before, but science has to probe to the very bottom of things…
Penis Worms Help Solve Unusual Evolutionary Puzzle
Yep, you read that right. This, enigmatic marine invertebrate known as a penis worm is shedding new light on the evolution of digestion by posing a curious question: which develops first, the mouth or the anus
Living in shallow waters and measuring up eight inches long, these worms are “living fossils” that have changed very little since their priapulid ancestors thrived on the ocean floor in the Cambrian period some 500 million years ago.
Certain whales can imitate the voices of humans
The marine mammal, a white whale named NOC, copied the sound of people so well that at first, researchers thought they were hearing humans conversing in the distance. A diver who worked with NOC once even left the water, wondering, “Who told me to get out?” The voice turned out to be that of NOC.
“They are highly vocal animals,” lead author Sam Ridgway of the National Marine Mammal Foundation told Discovery News, adding that NOC was not the first to copy human speech.
“A major instance occurred at Vancouver Aquarium in 1979,” he said. “In that case, people thought the whale uttered his name (“Lagosi”) and other sounds that were like garbled German or Russian. Our whale was the second example, however, ours was the first solid demonstration using acoustic analysis including ‘voice print’ simultaneously with human speech.”
dude, was “Predator X” not a cool enough name? high standard *scoff*
wait, they’re calling it funkei?! that’s pretty damn cool.
i feel a science rap coming on…
Sea Monster ‘Predator X’ Gets Official Name
It’s official: A giant, marine reptile that roamed the seas roughly 150 million years ago is a new species.
The animal, now named Pliosaurus funkei, spanned about 40 feet (12 meters) and had a massive 6.5-foot-long (2 m) skull with a bite four times as powerful as Tyrannosaurus rex.
In 2006, scientists unearthed two massive pliosaur skeletons in Svalbard, Norway, a string of islands halfway between Europe and the North Pole. The giant creatures, one of which was dubbed Predator X at the time, looked slightly different from other pliosaurs discovered in England and France over the last century and a half.
“They were the top predators of the sea,” said study co-author Patrick Druckenmiller, a paleontologist at the University of Alaska Museum. “They had teeth that would have made a T. rex whimper.”
“It’s not just that we found a new species, we’ve been discovering a whole ecosystem,” Druckenmiller said.
“it’s so big.” - she
Mysterious Huge Eyeball Likely Giant Squid’s
The eyes of giant and colossal deep-sea squid are 27 cm (10.6 inches) in diameter. Modeling suggests that the huge eyes are uniquely suited for spotting sperm whales,” said the research team.
Squid can regenerate body parts, and many marine animals can regenerate their eyes, so I can only hope that the one who lost this eye is still in the water of the living and will soon have a new eye.
volcanoes are probably one of the most beautifully deadly things on the planet.*
Nick Selway and CJ Kale braved 100° F waters to capture these rarely seem images of lava meeting the ocean.
Photographers Brave Boiling Water For Photos
via Reddit | Daily Mail
exception: kate beckinsale as a vampire who kills lycans.
“Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you might miss it.”
— Ferris Beuller
Sun Dogs, Halos and Double Rainbows
As sunlight scatters through ice crystals and raindrops it produces brilliant displays that can make a gray day glorious. The following slideshow captures beautiful moments of atmospheric phenomena.
Learn about the sun, rainbows and how light splits in these beautiful photos.
Earth’s Prized Corals Discovered
A new survey of coral populations in the Western Indian Ocean reveals the home to the second most diverse population of corals on the planet.
Blues seem bluer in this vividly hued coral paradise.
Space yacht?
I’ll take two.
Harnessing Solar Energy to Sail to the Stars?
In the history of space exploration, propulsion technology hasn’t really changed very much. The earliest rocket prototypes were nothing more than elaborate versions of weapons used during World War 2 and fireworks used during civil celebrations.
Now, we’ve looked into history for another solution, the solar sail.
