All articles tagged with #oceans
The article spotlights Gizmodo’s picks from the Ocean Photographer of the Year Awards finalists, showcasing dramatic marine scenes—from orca hunts and octopus courtship to seal pups, sea turtles, and tiny reef life—while also noting how human activity impacts ocean ecosystems.
A review of Mythicus's Minecraft Marketplace addon The Bloop, which makes the game's oceans far more dangerous with new sea monsters and a giant boss. Players visit sea villages to buy a diving suit and supplies, then dive into treacherous waters where they encounter terrifying mobs, get yanked into a boss encounter inside the Bloop, and are stalked by the creature across water, land, and even sky. The writer dies, respawns, and continues to be chased, delivering a chaotic, horror‑tinged Let’s Play that challenges players to survive the deep-sea nightmare.
Earth isn’t the Solar System’s sole water world: Europa’s subsurface ocean may hold about 3 billion cubic kilometres of liquid water—roughly twice the volume of Earth’s oceans—while Enceladus vents ocean material into space via its south-pole plumes, offering direct sampling opportunities. The concept of a single “ultimate water world” is too simplistic; water exists in diverse forms—volume, location, chemistry and accessibility—across the Solar System, and neither moon has found life evidence yet.
The 2025 State of the Climate report from the American Meteorological Society and NOAA warns that global warming is intensifying: oceans reached record-high temperatures for a third straight year, marine heatwaves covered about 87% of the world’s oceans, the Greenland Ice Sheet shed roughly 129 gigatons, surface albedo declined as land surfaces darkened and cloudiness fell, oceans absorbed about 90% of the excess heat and continued to acidify and lose oxygen. Fossil-fuel emissions remain the primary driver of warming and extreme weather, underscoring the need for resilience and stronger climate policies.
Global oceans reached their hottest July on record, with an average sea-surface temperature of 20.96C outside the polar regions—beating 2023’s high and about 1.47C above pre-industrial levels—partly driven by developing El Niño conditions. Western Europe also had its hottest June–July, fueling heatwaves and drought that stressed water supplies and spurred wildfires, while the UK faces lower river levels and ongoing heat and drought risks. Warming seas contribute to sea-level rise through thermal expansion and amplify marine heatwaves, underscoring climate-change impacts and the risk of more extreme conditions ahead.
An international, French-led expedition descended about 15,400 feet into the Northeast Atlantic to directly observe more than 200,000 barrels of largely corroded, low‑level radioactive waste dumped in the latter half of the 20th century, with material spilling onto the seafloor. On-site measurements detected radionuclides such as cobalt-60, niobium-94, cesium-137 and americium-241 above background levels, though scientists caution this is not yet a final ecological verdict. A 2025 mission mapped thousands of barrels with the Ulyx robot to guide 2026 close‑range dives, which also noted deep‑sea life colonizing the waste sites. Researchers say more laboratory work is needed to determine exact concentrations, how radionuclides move through sediment and water, and whether deep‑sea organisms are absorbing them, while international efforts (OSPAR) continue to study historic dumping practices and their ecological implications.
A new study suggests Venus’s surface features resemble giant marine signatures, indicating oceans may have covered up to about 90% of the planet and held around 40% as much water as Earth’s oceans. The researchers point to polygonal fault patterns, vast submarine-like channels, and salt-deposit evidence as clues; while not conclusive, the findings imply Venus once had a global sea before a runaway greenhouse effect ended it within the last billion years, a hypothesis future missions EnVision and VERITAS could test.
Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, is about the same diameter as Mercury but far less massive, thanks to its rock-and-ice composition; it likely harbors more water than Earth’s surface, has a layered interior with an iron-rich core and a conductive ocean, and uniquely generates its own magnetic field, creating a small magnetosphere within Jupiter’s. The moon’s complex geology, thin atmosphere, and tidal interactions mean it is a world in its own right, not just a simple satellite, and the upcoming JUICE mission aims to orbit Ganymede in 2034 to study its ice shell, ocean, and dynamo.
Scientists warn that dissolved oxygen in global oceans is falling rapidly due to warming, nutrient pollution, and algal blooms, threatening marine life across the food chain and possibly affecting climate regulation. Researchers from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography say this aquatic deoxygenation should be added to the Planetary Boundaries framework to reflect its global importance, and note that recovery could take centuries without coordinated emissions cuts and nutrient controls.
An OCEARCH-tagged male great white shark known as ‘Contender’—about 1,700 pounds and 14 feet—was detected near North Carolina’s Outer Banks as it migrates up the East Coast, illustrating ongoing tracking of the species’ movements along the western North Atlantic.
Ongoing heatwaves are shadowed by a large cool patch in the North Atlantic known as the “cold blob,” which scientists think may signal changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Fresh Greenland meltwater and altered heat exchange could slow the sinking of warm water, weakening AMOC and nudging the jet stream, potentially bringing more European heatwaves in the near term while raising the possibility of colder European conditions if the current weakens further. The science is still debated on exact causes and timing, but climate models generally project some AMOC weakening this century, underscoring the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions to mitigate risk.
Global oceans reached a new June heat record, with average sea-surface temperatures around 69.5°F (20.86°C) on June 21, 2026 (Copernicus data), and 69.38°F in another dataset, driven by the onset of El Niño and ongoing human-caused warming. Scientists warn this could mark a shift into uncharted territory, likely bringing more heat waves, stronger storms, heavier rainfall, and threats to marine life such as coral bleaching, though whether the spike is temporary remains uncertain.
A record global average sea-surface temperature in June—about 21C—driven by ongoing warming and the El Niño onset, pushed the world into uncharted territory, with Copernicus and NOAA warning more temperature records and extreme weather could follow as oceans have absorbed most excess heat and CO2; Europe experienced heatwaves and thousands affected, highlighting climate risks as El Niño strengthens.
Global ocean surface temperatures reached a new June record, surpassing 2023 and signaling potential hot spells and shifts in weather as El Niño is forecast to be the strongest in decades; continued heat uptake by the oceans, driven by human-caused warming, could drive more records and threaten marine ecosystems.
Scientists diving in the Diamantina Fracture Zone, about 20,000 feet deep in the Indian Ocean, have found the world’s largest whale graveyard, recording nearly 500 whale bones and estimating up to 10 million dead whales across a 660-mile area. The site supports a thriving community of deep-sea life around whale falls, including fossils up to 5.3 million years old and potential undiscovered species, reinforcing the idea that whale carcasses act as evolutionary hotspots and stepping stones for sulfide-dwelling organisms.