Pacific Ocean on EARTH Magazine

"Blob"-related warming contributed to Pacific Northwest ozone spike

Mon, 15 May 2017 15:00:06 -0400

In June 2015, tropospheric ozone levels measured at the observatory on Oregon's Mount Bachelor were more than 20 percent above the decadal average. Credit: Pao Baylon.

In June 2015, instruments on Oregon’s Mount Bachelor recorded mean ozone for the month at 56 parts per billion, more than 20 percent higher than the average level for the 11 years prior. Other stations around the West noted similarly high readings, puzzling scientists over the cause of the rise. In a new study in Geophysical Research Letters, researchers describe a confluence of meteorological conditions that appear to have driven the phenomenon.

Persistent Pacific warmth overshadows El Niño

Thu, 20 Oct 2016 10:37:53 -0400

Two ocean conditions — El Niño and a mass of warm water known as "the Blob" — both affected the Pacific last year but have faded away. Credit: Leslie Bell (lesliebell.com).

The El Niño of 2015–2016, dubbed a “super El Niño,” was officially declared over in May, bringing to a close one of the strongest El Niño events on record. Scientists are now unraveling the details of this climate phenomenon, and discovering how it interacted with other unusual ocean conditions to impact surface and subsurface ocean conditions within the California Current System (CCS) — one of the world’s major coastal upwelling zones and a region of great biologic productivity.

Powerful earthquake strikes Samoa

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

Updated on Sept. 30:

A tsunami spawned by Tuesday's earthquake, which struck in the Pacific Ocean between American Samoa and Samoa, swept across the islands on Tuesday, local authorities reported Wednesday. Authorities in the region are reporting that the death toll from the earthquake and tsunami has risen to at least 111 people, including 22 people in American Samoa, 82 people in Samoa and seven in Tonga, according to a report by CNN.

Voyage to the plastic vortex

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

SEAPLEX researchers examine a stuffed toy dog after it was collected along with ghost net debris on Aug. 15, 2009. 2009 Scripps Institution of Oceanography Photo credit: J. Leichter

Out in the middle of the northern Pacific Ocean, a giant floating mess of plastic debris is drifting and bobbing among the waves. Scientists call this expanse of litter, which stretches for hundreds of kilometers across open sea, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But before last summer, there was little information about how large the patch really is, what types of debris are out there and what kind of impact it is having on ocean life.