Interactive: The Heezen–Tharp World Ocean Floor Map from 1977 – State of the Planet

Recommendable! Seems to be a nice overview article!

What! It took that long to make this old map available interactive?

"... The map became one of the most influential scientific images of the 20th century, and it helped people see the ocean floor not as a static surface, but as part of a dynamic Earth. ..."

Interactive: The Heezen–Tharp World Ocean Floor Map – State of the Planet "Though nearly three-quarters of Earth’s surface lies beneath the oceans, the seafloor remained largely uncharted until the mid-20th century. Published in 1977, the World Ocean Floor map presented a sweeping panorama that revealed the underwater landscape in remarkable detail. Today, it is regarded as a landmark in oceanography and scientific cartography."

Source

Satellite maps of sinking coastlines are contradictory and come under scrutiny

When scientists believe in the global warming/climate change hoax, their impartiality is seriously affected! Also called confirmation bias!

"But satellite radar, a popular tool for identifying fast-sinking, vulnerable shorelines, may be leading scientists astray, according to a comparison of two influential studies of subsidence along the U.S. Gulf Coast. The studies reached strikingly different conclusions about which areas are sinking, according to the analysis, published today in Earth Observation. ..."

From the abstract:

"Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is widely used to monitor surface-elevation change in subsiding coastal regions, but inconsistencies between studies hinder understanding of the processes driving vertical land motion (VLM). Here we compare two recent InSAR datasets from the central U.S. Gulf Coast which yield similar mean rates (−2.8 ± 2.8 and −3.3 ± 1.8 mm yr−1) but show negligible spatial correlation (R2=0.05), except in medium to highly developed urban areas (R2>0.5). Using 41 Global Navigation Satellite System records from adjacent Pleistocene uplands with minimal shallow subsidence and sediment accretion, we find a median VLM of −1.2 mm yr−1, largely driven by glacial isostatic adjustment that is higher than previously believed. InSAR data exhibit larger uncertainties and are presently unable to capture this rate.

Given the struggles of InSAR in vegetated landscapes, we recommend that vertical velocities below 5 mm yr−1 are interpreted with utmost caution."

Satellite maps of sinking coastlines come under scrutiny | Science | AAAS

Evaluating InSAR-derived rates of surface-elevation change along the central U.S. Gulf Coast (open access)

Figure 1Maps of InSAR-derived surface-elevation change (SEC) rates and corresponding frequency histograms.

Earth's 40,000-year tilt cycle links Antarctic ice growth to subtropical productivity

Much of the so called global warming/climate change is most likely caused by variations in solar activity or various regular, recurrent movements of the earth axis. I have blogged about this multiple times.

"... The study ... found that the obliquity cycle—a 40,000-year astronomical cycle tied to changes in Earth's axial tilt—influenced ocean productivity in subtropical latitudes about 34 million years ago, when the Antarctic ice sheet was first expanding. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

The impact of Antarctic cryosphere dynamics on global marine ecosystems, under the anticipated elevated atmospheric pCO2-levels of our future, is a question of broad societal importance. Newly acquired geologic data from the subtropical South Atlantic provide the first evidence of a highly synchronized 40-kyr-scale teleconnection between Antarctic ice sheet evolution, physical oceanography, and subtropical marine bioproductivity following the Eocene–Oligocene Transition, under pCO2-levels that exceed that of today. This work underscores the sensitivity of the marine-based ice sheets of Antarctica to oceanic heat delivery—with linkages to meridional temperature gradients and pCO2—yielding important implications for marine bioproductivity in our future warming world.

Abstract

The inception of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) marked a major global climatic reorganization of the Cenozoic, but the response of the subtropical marine biosphere remains poorly constrained.

A new sediment archive from the subtropical South Atlantic (IODP Exp. 390 and 393) reveals a sevenfold increase in surface ocean bioproductivity proxy accumulation (biogenic barium) commensurate with the initial expansion of the AIS 34 Mya, and the emergence of an amplified astronomical forcing of subtropical bioproductivity that mirrors the subsequent evolution of the AIS in the early Oligocene.

We find that a strong 40-kyr obliquity response characterizes subtropical bioproductivity following the initial establishment of an expansive marine-based AIS. Portions of the AIS in contact with the marine environment are sensitive to meridional heat delivery controlled by obliquity-forced interactions between the atmosphere and ocean, which can propagate to the lower latitudes via Southern Ocean overturning circulation.

The surprising emergence of obliquity forcing of low-latitude bioproductivity enhances our understanding of global teleconnections and feedbacks that regulate global climate, and points to mechanisms driving global marine bioproductivity on astronomical timescales—and their intricate connections to the evolution of the cryosphere."

Earth's 40,000-year tilt cycle links Antarctic ice growth to subtropical productivity

High-latitude teleconnections drive subtropical marine bioproductivity at the dawn of the Antarctic ice sheet (no public access)

Marine DNA exposes massive gaps in ocean biosphere maps and finds fish in unexpected places

What little we still know about our oceans! And this study seems to have focused primarily on small fish (what about bigger fish?).

This is one reason among others whey global warming/climate change is a hoax!

"... The problem with current mapping projects, which aim to chart where species live and the conditions they need to survive, is that they are based on limited information. Traditional methods such as nets and underwater cameras primarily target easy-to-reach areas and often miss small, elusive species. This means our picture of ocean biodiversity is far from complete. ...

To fill these knowledge gaps, research ... used a powerful technique called Environmental DNA (eDNA). This approach can detect multiple species and identify their ranges without capturing or photographing them.

The research team collected nearly 1,000 water samples from 542 locations worldwide, including polar regions and tropical islands. They then analyzed the fish DNA in those samples and compared it with occurrence databases, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

These new eDNA surveys reveal just how incomplete our records are. According to results published by the team in PLOS Biology, 93% of geographic ranges were underestimated. This means species were living far outside the areas where they were historically mapped. For example, the crocodile icefish, which was previously known only to live in the freezing conditions of the Antarctic region, was detected in Patagonia (southern South America).

Additionally, 7% of species' ecological niches were also underestimated, meaning they were found to tolerate environmental conditions that were previously thought impossible for them to live. ...

The clear implication of these findings is that current mapping methods need to be updated, as they leave vast blind spots. ..."

From the abstract:

"Assessing species geographic distributions is critical to approximate their ecological niches, understand how global change may reshape their occurrence patterns, and predict their extinction risks. Yet, species records are over-aggregated across taxonomic, geographic, environmental, and anthropogenic dimensions.

The under-sampling of remote locations biases the quantification of species geographic distributions and ecological niche for most species.

Here, we used nearly one thousand environmental DNA (eDNA) samples across the world’s oceans, including polar regions and tropical remote islands, to determine the extent to which the geographic and ecological niche ranges of marine fishes are underestimated through the lens of global occurrence records based on conventional surveys.

Our eDNA surveys revealed that the known geographic ranges for 93% of species and the ecological niche ranges for 7% of species were underestimated, and contributed to filling them.

We show that the probability to detect a range filling for a given species is primarily shaped by the GBIF/OBIS sampling effort in a cell, but also by the number of occurrences available for the species. Most gap fillings were achieved by addressing a methodological sampling bias, notably when eDNA facilitated the detection of small fishes in previously sampled locations using conventional methods.

Using a machine learning model, we found that a local effort of 10 eDNA samples would detect 24 additional fish species on average and a maximum of 98 species in previously unsampled tropical areas. Yet, a null model revealed that only half of ecological niche range fillings would be due to eDNA surveys, beyond a random allocation of classical sampling effort. Altogether, our results suggest that sampling in remote areas and performing eDNA surveys in over-sampled areas may both increase fish ecological niche ranges toward unexpected values with consequences in biodiversity modeling, management, and conservation."

Marine DNA exposes massive gaps in ocean maps and finds fish in unexpected places

eDNA surveys substantially expand known geographic and ecological niche boundaries of marine fishes (open access)

Fig 1. Map of both GBIF/OBIS and eDNA surveys, and the distribution of their associated environmental and anthropogenic variables.

Fig 2. Map of the predicted number of fish species gained in a cell if 10 eDNA samples were added to GBIF/OBIS sampling records, if any.

The ocean's deepest animal ecosystem in a trench down 9,000 meters

Amazing stuff! Absolutely stunning!

Bedrock Ocean dredges up $25M to map the seafloor with robots

We still know very little about our oceans! Maybe robotics will finally change that!

"Oceans may cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, but we have better maps of the moon than we do the seabed. There are good reasons for that: The ocean floor is obscured, and the harsh environment makes it hard to send humans down to get a closer look. But as robots improve, we may finally get a clearer picture of the deep abyss. 

There are a number of startups racing to map the ocean in greater detail, but the latest to snag fresh funding is Bedrock Ocean, which recently closed a $25 million Series A-2 round led by Primary and Northzone, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. Autopilot, Costanoa Ventures, Harmony Partners, Katapult, and Mana Ventures participated.

Bedrock Ocean has developed an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that runs for up to 12 hours off its lithium-ion batteries while mapping the floor using its sonar and magnetic sensors. ..."

Bedrock Ocean dredges up $25M to map the seafloor with robots | TechCrunch

Bedrock Ocean

An Ocean in Motion: NASA's Mesmerizing View of Earth's Underwater Highways

Amazing stuff!

A Vast Portion of the Arctic Ocean seafloor Has Just Been Mapped Out

Amazing stuff! We still do not have maps of the entire ocean floors!

Note the resolution is still only 100 × 100 meter grid cells. Pretty coarse I would say!

"It was never going to be a mean feat, having the entire world’s seafloor mapped out in detail by the year 2030. Particularly when the project officially only got underway in 2017. Nevertheless, it’s a vision now one giant step closer to reality, thanks to a recent triumph in the Arctic Ocean. ..."

"The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project is pleased to announce the publication of the latest version of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO), Version 5.0. This release adds 1.4 million square kilometers of mapping coverage – an area over three times the size of Sweden – to the global seafloor dataset.

This development represents a significant step forward in the mission to achieve a complete map of the seafloor by 2030, offering an unprecedented level of detail for the Arctic Ocean. It also provides vital insights for researchers and policymakers, contributing to safer navigation and more effective ocean exploration. ..."

From the abstract:

"Knowledge about seafloor depth, or bathymetry, is crucial for various marine activities, including scientific research, offshore industry, safety of navigation, and ocean exploration.

Mapping the central Arctic Ocean is challenging due to the presence of perennial sea ice, which limits data collection to icebreakers, submarines, and drifting ice stations. The International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO) was initiated in 1997 with the goal of updating the Arctic Ocean bathymetric portrayal. The project team has since released four versions, each improving resolution and accuracy.

Here, we present IBCAO Version 5.0, which offers a resolution four times as high as Version 4.0, with 100 × 100 m grid cells compared to 200 × 200 m. Over 25% of the Arctic Ocean is now mapped with individual depth soundings, based on a criterion that considers water depth. Version 5.0 also represents significant advancements in data compilation and computing techniques. Despite these improvements, challenges such as sea-ice cover and political dynamics still hinder comprehensive mapping."

Arctic Ocean map an "unprecedented" milestone for Seabed 2030

New Arctic Ocean map marks key milestone in global seafloor mapping (original news release)

The International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean Version 5.0 (open access)

Credits: A Vast Portion of the Arctic Ocean Has Just Been Mapped Out - Human Progress

Fig. 1 Overview maps illustrating Arctic Ocean bathymetry and source data for the compilation of IBCAO 5.0.

Extensive ocean floor mapping via satellite of the still poorly charted seafloor

Amazing stuff! However, an 8-kilometer spatial resolution is not too impressive.

"... researchers using data from a cutting-edge satellite released a new map of the global seafloor charting more than 200,000 of these [abyssal] hills. Launched two years ago by NASA and CNES, France’s national space agency, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite is primarily meant to map the height of ocean swirls and rivers in fine detail. But by looking at subtle ways water piles about these large seafloor features due to gravity, it can also map the abyss.

After just one year, seafloor maps created by SWOT have already outpaced those assembled from decades of older technology. With only 25% of the ocean bottom mapped by sonar, the SWOT maps will fill critical gaps for decades to come. And in particular, its view of the abyssal hills—one of the fundamental fabrics of Earth’s surface—will allow plate tectonics to be studied in fine detail, perhaps triggering a new boom in the field. ..."

From the perspective abstract:

"Global marine gravity fields—variations in Earth’s gravitational pull across the ocean surface—provide valuable information about seafloor topography and plate tectonics beneath the water, knowledge that is essential for understanding geological features and ocean dynamics.

A technique that estimates Earth’s surface heights from space, called satellite altimetry, has partially resolved marine gravity fields. However, conventional altimetry can only obtain one-dimensional measurements along a satellite track. The 2022 Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission marked a considerable advancement in satellite altimetry because it captures two-dimensional, large-area topography data with high precision (3). On page 1251 of this issue, Yu et al. (4) report that a gravity field derived from 1 year of SWOT data reveals plate tectonics along the deep ocean floor that had remained hidden for the past 30 years with conventional altimeter observations. This level of detail could improve understanding of ocean environment and dynamics."

From the editor's summary and abstract:

"Editor’s summary

Detailed maps of the ocean floor come from ship crossings but can also be obtained using satellite altimetry. Yu et al. used radar altimetry observations from just 1 year of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission to develop a high-resolution global seafloor map ... The new satellite observations have a resolution about twice that of the older observations, presenting an opportunity to better understand the geological features of the seafloor. ...

Abstract

The global ocean covers 71% of Earth’s surface, yet the seafloor is poorly charted compared with land, the Moon, Mars, and Venus. Traditional ocean mapping uses ship-based soundings and nadir satellite radar altimetry—one limited in spatial coverage and the other in spatial resolution. The joint NASA–CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission uses phase-coherent, wide-swath radar altimetry to measure ocean surface heights at high precision. We show that 1 year of SWOT data offers more detailed information than 30 years of satellite nadir altimetry in marine gravity, enabling the detection of intricate seafloor structures at 8-kilometer spatial resolution. With the mission still ongoing, SWOT promises critical insights for bathymetric charting, tectonic plate reconstruction, underwater navigation, and deep ocean mixing."

ScienceAdviser

Transforming coastal mapping from space (no public access)

Abyssal marine tectonics from the SWOT mission (no public access)

The parallel ridges of abyssal hills, as seen by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography satellite, extend out from the flanks of a seafloor spreading center (black lines) in the Indian Ocean. 

Oceanographers record the largest predation event ever observed in the ocean

What a massacre! What a feast! Of hotspots and blind spots!

"With a new mapping method, MIT scientists observed millions of capelin fish shoaling off the Norwegian coast. A vast swarm of cod devoured the capelin, in the largest predation event yet recorded. ..."

From the abstract:

"Sensing limitations have impeded knowledge about how individual predator-prey interactions build to organized multi-species group behaviour across an ecosystem. Population densities of overlapping interacting oceanic fish predator and prey species, however, can be instantaneously distinguished and quantified from roughly the elemental individual to spatial scales spanning thousands of square kilometres by wide-area multispectral underwater-acoustic sensing, as shown here. This enables fundamental mechanisms behind large-scale ordered predator-prey interactions to be investigated. Critical population densities that transition random individual behaviour to ordered group behaviour are found to rapidly propagate to form vast adversarial prey and predator shoals of capelin and surrounding cod in the Barents Sea Arctic ecosystem for these keystone species. This leads to a sudden major shift in predator-prey balance. Only a small change in local behaviour triggers the shift due to an unstable equilibrium. Such unstable equilibria and associated balance shifts at predation hotspots are often overlooked as blind spots in present ocean ecosystem monitoring and assessment due to use of highly undersampled spatio-temporal sampling methods."

Oceanographers record the largest predation event ever observed in the ocean | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology "The scientists’ wide-scale acoustic mapping technique could help track vulnerable keystone species."

Rapid predator-prey balance shift follows critical-population-density transmission between cod (Gadus morhua) and capelin (Mallotus villosus) (open access)

Fig. 1: Instantaneous wide area population density images of overlapping species showing transition from random individual behaviour to ordered adversarial group behaviour in rapid formation and propagation of capelin prey and engulfing cod predator shoals.

NASA: PACE satellite Makes the Invisible Visible of our oceans and atmosphere

Very recommendable! Amazing stuff!

Antarctic Circumpolar Current: How Earth’s most powerful ocean current changed over the past 5.3 million years

Recommendable, but you have to discount the climate change garbage contained in the article!

Fact is we still know so very little about what goes on in our vast oceans not to mention its effects on climate over time! It is actually shocking how little we know about our oceans in the 21st century, it is like terra incognita! This reason alone disqualifies already any Global Warming and Climate Change propaganda and demagoguery!

This study also only scratches in tiny ways the surface of our understanding of oceanology! Anything else is pretense of knowledge!

"The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the most powerful current system on Earth. It moves 100 times as much water as all the Earth’s rivers combined in a circular current that flows clockwise around Antarctica.

In recent decades the ACC has been speeding up, but scientists have been unsure whether this increase is connected to human-induced global warming.

Now, new research indicates that the ACC slowed down during cold glacial periods in the past and gained speed during warm interglacial times – these speedups also correlate with major losses of Antarctica’s ice.
“The ACC has a major influence on heat distribution and CO2 storage in the ocean,” ..."

"... The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets. An international research team led by the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have now used sediments taken from the South Pacific to reconstruct the flow speed in the last 5.3 million years. Their data show that during glacial periods, the current slowed; during interglacials, it accelerated. Consequently, if the current global warming intensifies in the future, it could mean that the Southern Ocean stores less CO2 and that more heat reaches Antarctica. The study was just released in the journal Nature. ..."

From the abstract:

"The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) represents the world’s largest ocean-current system and affects global ocean circulation, climate and Antarctic ice-sheet stability. Today, ACC dynamics are controlled by atmospheric forcing, oceanic density gradients and eddy activity. Whereas palaeoceanographic reconstructions exhibit regional heterogeneity in ACC position and strength over Pleistocene glacial–interglacial cycles, the long-term evolution of the ACC is poorly known. Here we document changes in ACC strength from sediment cores in the Pacific Southern Ocean. We find no linear long-term trend in ACC flow since 5.3 million years ago (Ma), in contrast to global cooling and increasing global ice volume. Instead, we observe a reversal on a million-year timescale, from increasing ACC strength during Pliocene global cooling to a subsequent decrease with further Early Pleistocene cooling. This shift in the ACC regime coincided with a Southern Ocean reconfiguration that altered the sensitivity of the ACC to atmospheric and oceanic forcings. We find ACC strength changes to be closely linked to 400,000-year eccentricity cycles, probably originating from modulation of precessional changes in the South Pacific jet stream linked to tropical Pacific temperature variability. A persistent link between weaker ACC flow, equatorward-shifted opal deposition and reduced atmospheric CO2 during glacial periods first emerged during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT). The strongest ACC flow occurred during warmer-than-present intervals of the Plio-Pleistocene, providing evidence of potentially increasing ACC flow with future climate warming."

Earth’s most powerful ocean current changed with the climate

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth (original press release) Ocean sediment cores reveal climate-related fluctuations in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in past epochs

Five million years of Antarctic Circumpolar Current strength variability (open access)

Driven by powerful winds, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current swirls clockwise around the southern continent. Hotter colors represent higher velocities; red dots are drill sites.

Fig. 2: ACC strength changes over the past three glacial cycles (records along north–south transects from the SAZ to the AZ and west–east across the EPR in the SAZ) compared with Antarctic ice-core temperature and atmospheric CO2 records.

Fig. 5: Schematic illustrating key atmospheric and oceanic processes influencing million-year trends in ACC strength.

Sensationsfund in der Tiefsee

Sehr empfehlenswert! Unglaublich!

Ocean garbage collection group removes record 25,000 pounds of trash from Great Pacific Garbage Patch in one extraction

Time to extend garbage collection on land to the oceans! Humans know how to deal with garbage.

No reason to panic over plastic swimming in our oceans! Plastophobia is a serious disease, please seek immediate medical care!

Don't be scared of microplastics! This just another propaganda and demagoguery subject!

Fact is that 8 billion humans produce a lot of trash on a daily basis, but it should not end up in the oceans.

I am sure also more could be done from plastics entering the oceans from rivers around the world. "Rivers are the main source of ocean plastic pollution. They are the arteries that carry waste from land to the ocean. According to our research, 1000 rivers are responsible for roughly 80% of riverine pollution." (Source)

"The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit environmental engineering organization, saw its largest extraction earlier this month by removing about 25,000 pounds of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch ...

The vessels are currently on the way back to port in Victoria, British Columbia, after having collected about 50 tons of garbage in four weeks ...

The patch in the Pacific has grown so much that a new coastal ecosystem is thriving on it, a study published by Nature Ecology & Evolution in April found. ...

The Ocean Cleanup's aim is to remove 90% of floating plastic from the oceans by 2040, which they believe is achievable ...

By the end of the month, The Ocean Cleanup will launch System 03, a larger version of its current system of floating barriers. Its predecessor, System 02, which was utilized in the most recent mission, is about 875 yards long. The new replacement measures at about 2,400 yards long, which will lead to much bigger and more successful catches ..."

Ocean cleanup group removes record 25,000 pounds of trash from Great Pacific Garbage Patch in one extraction - ABC News A new system will be able to clear a football field every five seconds.

The Largest Cleanup In History

Using an unmanned submersible researchers discover the deepest fish ever recorded at a depth of 8,300 meters

We still know so little about our oceans! What lurks beneath?

But lots of demagogues pretend they understand climate change!

"Scientists ... have set a new record for the deepest fish ever recorded. Using unmanned submersibles and baited cameras, the team of researchers explored the Japan, Izu-Ogasawara and Ryukyu trenches as part of a decade-long study into the deepest fish populations in the world.

They were able to film a previously unknown species of snailfish belonging to the genus Pseudoliparis swimming at a depth of 8,336 meters (27,000 feet). In addition to filming the deepest snailfish, the scientists physically caught two other specimens of the species Pseudoliparis belyaevi from 8,022 meters, setting another record for the deepest catch. ...

In 2008, researchers were able to film a snailfish at 7,702 meters beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.  ..."

"... The mission was to explore the Japan, Izu-Ogasawara and Ryukyu trenches at 8,000m, 9,300m and 7,300m deep respectively as part of a 10-year study into the deepest fish populations in the world. ...
Despite the large and somewhat lively population of fish living at these depths, the solitary individual that claims the accolade of the deepest ever found, was an extremely small juvenile. Snailfish tend to be the opposite of other deep-sea fish where the juveniles live at the deeper end of their depth range. ..."

Deep dive discovery: researchers working in Japan's waters find the deepest fish ever recorded

Scientists break new record after finding world's deepest fish

What a beauty! Looks almost like a deep see axolotl

The Atlantic Multi Decadal Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Earth's climate is among the most complex natural phenomena of our planet known to humans!

The warming and cooling climate appears to follow lengthy multi-scale periods of various length from decadal, several centuries, to multiple millennia and so forth. The variability and cyclicity of solar activity is just one part of it. Most likely this cyclicity and variability is still little understood!

Both have a huge impact on climate and temperature. Both are variable and periodic over up to several decades!

Both climate affecting natural phenomena have only been discovered in recent decades and were probably not very well known before about 1990! 

Both may still not be very well understood.

Both are most likely not well reflected in current climate computer models! 

"The Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) has been identified as a coherent mode of natural variability occurring in the North Atlantic Ocean with an estimated period of 60-80 years. ..."

"The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is often described as a long-lived El Niño-like pattern of Pacific climate variability ... As seen with the better-known El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), extremes in the PDO pattern are marked by widespread variations in the Pacific Basin and the North American climate. ...."

Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO)

Satellite based global mean sea level and acceleration measurements are likely dubious and suspect

I also think that the alarmism of rising global sea levels is more based on pseudoscience than anything else! The presented outcomes of this research is too often driven by the prevailing ideology of the scientists!

The two articles below are dated, but I don't think the issue of dubious global mean sea level and acceleration measurements is any better today!

This kind of measurement across all oceans and different satellite data is extraordinarily complex and difficult! Apparently, this kind of data is only available since 1992!

The study below addresses only the issue of global mean see level acceleration measurement. I suspect not only acceleration measurement is dubious, but also level measurements!

From the abstract:

"Satellite radar altimetry has been providing estimates of global mean sea level (GMSL) since 1992. The early TOPEX record originates from two identical instruments, which requires the estimation of an intermission bias and careful handling of the problematic first part of the record. Calibration of TOPEX is crucial to obtain a continuous and consistent record, which is needed to quantify any recent acceleration. We propose a novel approach to calibrate TOPEX altimeter data using sea surface height differences at crossovers of TOPEX and ERS. Tide gauges are only used to determine a drift in one of the two datasets. We provide a new and more accurate estimate of the intra-mission bias, which leads to a much reduced GMSL acceleration over the whole record. Hence, the conundrum of an uncertain GMSL acceleration from altimetry is still unsolved, in spite of recent opposite claims, and in contrast to the expected effect of ocean warming and continental freshwater fluxes."

Science Catches Up With WUWT - Watts Up With That? (this is an older article)

A revised acceleration rate from the altimetry-derived global mean sea level record (open access, published in 2019)

About Deep Sea Mining of polymetallic nodules

Very recommendable except for that Climate Change propaganda!

A Texas-Based Startup is Mapping The Ocean Floor Using A Machine Learning-Backed, Cloud-Based Portal and autonomous submersibles

Surprise, surprise, our oceans are still kind of a terra incognita in the 21st century!

Detailed maps of the ocean floors what a prospect! Very exciting!

The company TerraDepth behind this was apparently influenced by Jacques Cousteau! Of course, I also watched many of his films about the ocean on TV as a teenager!

The company appears to have few women on staff, but several burly and rugged explorer like looking men, what a petty! And there is Ragnar Doodlesson, CFO (Chief Fetch Officer)

From the company's website:

"... FULLY AUTONOMOUS SUBSEA MISSIONS.

Our high-tech unmanned submersibles are changing the way that ocean data is collected. ...

OCEAN-OBSESSED VISIONARIES

Our tight-knit team of engineers, scientists, roboticists, machine learning gurus and US Navy veterans are united by our vision to become the foremost influencer on human interaction with the ocean. Powered by our fleet of autonomous submersibles and revolutionary data collection and interpretation services, we're demonstrating that a deeper understanding of the ocean is on the horizon.

Developing a better relationship with our oceans is critical to the sustainable future of our planet. ..."

"Terradepth ["Discovering the last unexplored frontier on Earth"] is a data-as-a-service firm creating a comprehensive map of the earth’s oceans. Their systems travel farther, deeper, and for longer periods without the need for humans onboard, exploring never-before-seen areas of the sea. They’re building a scalable, cost-effective ... database that will inform and transform various sectors that deal with the oceans. Terradepth is constantly collecting meaningful insights from the ocean data, from anticipating atmospheric weather patterns to creating underwater energy and telecom infrastructures ..."

This Texas-Based Startup is Mapping The Ocean Floor Using A Machine Learning-Backed, Cloud-Based Portal - MarkTechPost

There are more fish in the twilight zone near the Antarctic than we thought

Amazing stuff! What little we still now about our oceans!

More evidence that Global Warming is a hoax and Climate Change is a religion!

"... researchers say, the biomass (total weight of the fish) in the areas close to the Antarctic could be 1.8-3.6 greater than previously expected ...
Fish play a vital role in the oceanic carbon cycle, and they’re also a key component of their ecosystems."

From the abstract:

"The oceanic mesopelagic zone, 200–1000 m below sea level, holds abundant small fishes that play central roles in ecosystem function. Global mesopelagic fish biomass estimates are increasingly derived using active acoustics, where echosounder-generated signals are emitted, reflected by pelagic organisms and detected by transducers on vessels. Previous studies have interpreted a ubiquitous decline in acoustic reflectance towards the Antarctic continent as a reduction in mesopelagic fish biomass. Here, we use empirical data to estimate species-specific acoustic target strength for the dominant mesopelagic fish of the Scotia Sea in the Southern Ocean. We use these data, alongside estimates of fish relative abundance from net surveys, to interpret signals received in acoustic surveys and calculate mesopelagic biomass of the broader Southern Ocean. We estimate the Southern Ocean mesopelagic fish biomass to be approximately 274 million tonnes if Antarctic krill contribute to the acoustic signal, or 570 million tonnes if mesopelagic fish alone are responsible. These quantities are approximately 1.8 and 3.8 times greater than previous net-based biomass estimates. We also show a peak in fish biomass towards the seasonal ice-edge, corresponding to the preferred feeding grounds of penguins and seals ... Our study provides new insights into the abundance and distributions of ecologically significant mesopelagic fish stocks across the Southern Ocean ecosystem."

"... However, large-scale biomass estimates for the Southern Ocean are rare, which limits our ability to quantify the importance of mesopelagic fish in ecosystem functioning and carbon sequestration. ..."

There are more fish in the "twilight" zone near the Antarctic than we thought The more researchers look in the oceans, the more they find them teeming with life.

Large mesopelagic fish biomass in the Southern Ocean resolved by acoustic properties (open access)