Weekly Ocean News

WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

WEEK FOUR: 22-26 September 2014

For Your Information

The Autumnal Equinox --The Autumnal Equinox will occur early this coming Monday evening (officially at 0229Z on 23 September 2014 or 10:29 PM EDT or 9:29 PM CDT, etc. on the 22nd). At that time the noontime sun will appear directly above the equator, representing one of the two times during the year for such an occurrence, with the other being at the vernal equinox in March. The term "equinox" arises from the fact that this time of year represents "equal night" and equal day essentially everywhere. Within the subsequent several days, the length of daylight will become noticeably shorter. This decrease in daylight will continue for another three months to the winter solstice during the early evening of Sunday, 21 December 2014.
Editor's note: John White, a meteorologist from North Carolina involved with the AMS Education program, reported that the geosynchronous (or geostationary) satellites make an "satellite eclipse" of the sun near the spring and autumnal equinoxes because of their equatorial orbit, such that these satellites pass through the earth's shadow and the satellite is powered down when the solar array does not receive sufficient sunlight. [For more information, consult NWS Southern Region GOES Satellite FAQ] EJH.
If you checked the sunrise and sunset times in your local newspaper or from the climate page at your local National Weather Service Office, you would probably find that not until the midpoint of this coming week will the length of time when the Sun is above the local horizon would be precisely 12 hours at most locations. However; the length of night will exceed that of the length of daylight by the end of the week. The effects of atmospheric refraction (bending of light rays by the varying density of the atmosphere) along with a relatively large diameter of the sun contribute to several additional minutes that the Sun appears above the horizon at sunrise and sunset.
Reconstructing past oceanic conditions from marine sediment cores -- If you would like information on how scientists can reconstruct past environmental conditions in the oceans from the analysis of the physical, chemical and geological data in deep-sea sediment cores, please read this week's Supplemental Information…In Greater Depth.
Remembering Hurricane Hugo after 25 years -- The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Charleston, SC recently created a website with video series and an interactive map that commemorates the 25th anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Hugo, a massive category 4 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale). At the time, Hugo was the strongest hurricane to strike the United States in more than 20 years and it also was the the nation's costliest hurricane on record, with an estimated $7 billion in damage. As many as 26 deaths were attributed to Hugo in the US, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. [NOAA Weather-Ready Nation News]

Ocean in the News

Eye on the Tropics -- During the last week, tropical cyclone activity continued in the Atlantic and Pacific basins of the Northern Hemisphere:

In the North Atlantic basin, the fourth hurricane of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Edouard, continued to travel toward the northwest well away from any landmass at the start of last week. Cape Verde Islands. Traveling to the northwest over the weekend, Edouard intensified to become the fourth hurricane of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season early Sunday. During the week, Edouard briefly became a major category 3 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) as it turned to the north and passing to the east of Bermuda. During the latter part of the week, Edouard weakened as it gradually curved toward the east, becoming a post-tropical low pressure system at the end of last week. See the NASA Hurricane Page for additional information and satellite imagery on Tropical Storm Edouard.

In the eastern North Pacific basin, Hurricane Odile made landfall near Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula early Monday as a major category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. After inflicting considerable damage to Cabo San Lucas with its strong winds, high surf and heavy rains, Odile continued northward along the Baja California Peninsula as a strong tropical storm, eventually exiting out over the northern Gulf of California by midweek. Eventually, Odile made another landfall along the coast of northwestern Mexico's state of Sonora, weakening to a tropical depression and then a remnant post-tropical cyclone during the second half of the week. Abundant water vapor from the tropics were brought northward into Arizona, New Mexico and west Texas from the remnants of this former hurricane. See the NASA Hurricane Page for satellite images and additional information on Hurricane Odile.
The sixteenth named tropical cyclone of the 2014 eastern Pacific hurricane season formed early last week off the southwest coast of Mexico. Identified as Tropical Storm Polo, this system traveled toward the northwest paralleling the coast. Polo briefly became the twelfth hurricane of the season in the basin just after the midpoint of last week. During the remainder of the week, Tropical Storm Polo slowly weakened as it gradually curved toward the west-northwest, taking it away from southern sections of the Baja California Peninsula. By Sunday, Polo was a minimal tropical storm as it headed toward the west. Polo was expected to become a tropical depression and eventually dissipate as it moves westward away from the coast. Satellite images and additional information on Hurricane Polo are available on the NASA Hurricane Page.
In the western North Pacific basin, Typhoon Kalmaegi traveled across the northern section of the island of Luzon in the Philippines at the start of last week. This category 1 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale then continued to travel to the west-northwest across the South China Sea, passing across China's Hainan Island and finally making another landfall in northeastern Vietnam. Kalmaegi intensified to become a typhoon. Additional information on Typhoon Kalmaegi including satellite images is available on the NASA Hurricane Page .
A tropical depression over the Philippine Sea to the east of Luzon strengthened to become Tropical Storm Fung Wong near the midpoint of last week. Traveling to the west-northwest, Fung Wong brushed the northern coast of Luzon before turning toward the north and reaching the southern coast of Taiwan over this past weekend. This tropical storm traveled to the north-northeast along Taiwan's coast. Forecasts indicate that Fung Wong should pass northward across the East China Sea and possibly make landfall along the coast of mainland China north of Shanghai early this week. The NASA Hurricane Page has additional information and satellite images on Tropical Storm Fung Wong.

New scatterometer heading to Space Station to monitor ocean winds -- After several delays, the SpaceX commercial resupply services mission's Falcon 9 rocket carrying NASA's International Space Station Rapid Scatterometer (ISS-RapidScat) finally lifted off from Cape Canaveral early Sunday morning. The ISS-RapidScat instrument, which is scheduled to reach the International Space Station on Tuesday, will globally monitor surface winds over the oceans and is intended to track tropical and nontropical cyclones (storms) and help provide a better understanding of climate. [NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory News]
"Ghost ship" wrecks identified off Golden Gate -- NOAA researchers and their colleagues including San Francisco Bay (CA) area divers have identified the previously unidentified wrecks of old ships in the waters of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the adjacent Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. The newly identified wrecks included the steamer Selja that sank in 1910, the clipper ship Noonday lost in 1863 and the tankers Frank H. Buck rammed in 1937 and Lyman Stewart stranded in 1922. [NOAA News]
Warming of Atlantic waters could increase expansion of invasive, native species -- Scientists from NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington claim that increases in ocean temperatures across the western North Atlantic appear to have resulted in an expansion of invasive native marine species. The researchers based their discoveries upon an ecological study on the North Carolina reefs and bottom water temperature data from 2006 to 2010. [NOAA News]
Monetary awards made to rescue marine mammals and investigate health problems -- Early last week NOAA Fisheries officials announced that 35 monetary grants amounting to $2.7 million have been awarded to partner organizations in 18 states designated to rehabilitate stranded marine mammals and collect data on their health as part of the John H. Prescott Marine Mammal Rescue Assistance Grant Program. [NOAA Fisheries News]
Coral growth rate on the Great Barrier Reef plunges over last four decades -- Researchers working on a Carnegie Institution of Science expedition to Australia's Great Barrier Reef have discovered that coral growth rates on the reef have declined by approximately 40 percent since the mid-1970s. The scientists believe that ocean acidification may have played a significant role in the decline in the coral growth rate. [Carnegie Institution of Science News]
Review of August 2014 (and seasonal) weather and climate for the globe -- Preliminary data analyzed by scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) indicated:

The global combined land and ocean average surface temperature for August 2014 was 61.45 degrees Fahrenheit, which represents a record high August monthly temperature since a sufficiently dense network of global temperature records began in 1880. The globally averaged August 2014 temperature was 1.35 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average (1901-2000) for the month. When considered separately, the monthly temperature departure of the ocean surface was 1.17 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average, which not only would be a record high for August in the last 135 years, but also broke the largest temperature departure for any month of the year, set only two months ago in June 2014. The land surface surface temperature for this recently concluded month was the second highest August temperature on record, with a monthly temperature that was approximately 1.78 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average. [NOAA/NCDC State of the Climate]
A global map of Selected Significant Climate Anomalies and Events for August 2014 is available from NCDC.
The global land and ocean average temperature for the three-months of June, July and August (meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere) 2014 was also the highest for this three-month period since 1880, as it was 1.28 Fahrenheit degrees above the 20th-century average. The June-August 2014 temperature for the ocean was highest while the corresponding land temperature for the three months was the fifth highest for any boreal summer in the last 135 years.
According to data provided by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the average August Arctic sea ice extent was approximately 13.8 percent below the 1981–2010 average, making it the seventh smallest August Arctic sea ice extent since satellite records began in 1979. Conversely, the August Antarctic sea ice extent was the largest August extent on record.

An All-Hazards Monitor-- This Web portal provides the user information from NOAA's National Weather Service, FAA and FEMA on current environmental events that may pose as hazards such as tropical weather, fire weather, marine weather, severe weather, drought and floods. [NOAA/NWS Daily Briefing]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Concept of the Week: Variations in Marine Sediment Thickness

Sediments are particles of organic or inorganic origin that accumulate in loose form in depositional environments such as lake or ocean bottoms. Marine sediments, the central focus of this week's investigations, have a variety of sources and exhibit a wide range of composition, size, and shape. Marine sediments settle to the ocean floor as unconsolidated accumulations but ultimately may be converted to solid sedimentary rock via compaction and cementation. The pattern of variations in marine sediment thickness on the ocean floor confirms some basic understandings regarding marine geological processes.

Go to the DataStreme Ocean Website and under "Geological," click on "Sediment Thickness." This map of marine sediment thickness in the ocean basins was compiled by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), Marine Geology and Geophysics Division primarily based on existing maps, ocean drilling, and seismic reflection profiles. Sediment thickness is color-coded in meters from violet (thinnest) to red (thickest). Many factors account for the variation in the thickness of marine sediment deposits including type and location of sediment sources, sediment transport mechanisms, and the age of the underlying crust.

According to the map, sediment thickness generally increases with distance from near the central portion of an ocean basin to the continental margin. This pattern may be explained by the principal sediment source and/or the age of the underlying crust. Rivers and streams that empty into the ocean slow and diverge, releasing the bulk of their suspended sediment load in coastal environments (e.g., bays, estuaries, deltas) and onto the continental shelf. Ocean currents transport sediment along the coast. In some areas of the continental shelf, massive amounts of sediment accumulate, become unstable, and flow down the continental slope to the base of the continental rise and beyond. However, only the finer fraction of river-borne sediment is swept into the deep ocean waters. Thickening of marine sediments in the direction of the continental margin may also reflect the aging of oceanic crust with distance away from divergent (spreading) plate boundaries where new oceanic crust forms. The older the crust the longer is the period that sediment rains down on the ocean bottom and the thicker is the blanket of accumulated sediment.

The map indicates that the thickness of marine sediment deposits is greater in the continental margin along the Atlantic coast of North America than along the Pacific coast. The Atlantic coast of North America is a passive margin; that is, the continental margin is not affected significantly by tectonic processes (no plate boundary) and the principal geological processes consist of sedimentation along with erosion by ocean waves and currents. In fact, passive margins and relatively thick marine sediment deposits occur on both sides of the Atlantic. (Passive margins also occur around the Arctic Ocean and surrounding Antarctica.) On the other hand, the Pacific coast of North America is an active margin; that is, the continental margin is associated with plate boundaries and is subject to deformation by tectonic stresses. Active continental margins are relatively narrow so that sediment delivered to the coast by rivers and streams flows directly into deeper water or trenches—preventing thick accumulations of marine sediments from building in the continental margin.

Concept of the Week: Questions

The thickness of marine sediment deposits is greater in the [(continental margins)(deep-ocean basins)].
The thickness of marine sediment deposits generally is greater in [(active)(passive)]continental margins.

Historical Events

22-23 September 1998...Hurricane Georges raked Hispaniola leaving over 580 dead in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, due mainly to flash flooding and subsequent mud slides in high terrain regions. Damage estimates from the storm exceeded $1 billion (US). (The Weather Doctor)
23 September 1551...The Grand Harbour at Valetta, Malta was hit by a waterspout that then moved inland and caused extensive damage. A shipping armada in the harbor about to go into battle was destroyed by the waterspout killing at least 600 people. (The Weather Doctor)
23 September 1815...One of the most powerful hurricanes to strike New England made landfall initially on Long Island, NY and then again at Old Saybrook, CT before crossing into Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Extensive structural damage resulted. Providence, RI was flooded and six people were killed. This "Great September Gale" was the worst tempest in nearly 200 years, equal in strength to the Great 1938 Hurricane, and one of a series of severe summer and autumn storms to affect shipping lanes that year. (David Ludlum)
24 September 1493...Christopher Columbus set sail with 17 ships on his second expedition to the New World, reaching the Lesser Antilles, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola before returning to Europe in March 1496. (Wikipedia)
25 September 1513...Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a Spanish conquistador-explorer, crossed the isthmus of Panama and reached the Pacific Ocean, which he christened Mar del Sur (South Sea), claiming the ocean and all adjacent lands for Spain. (Wikipedia)
25 September 1939...A West Coast hurricane moved onshore south of Los Angeles bringing unprecedented rains along the southern coast of California. Nearly 5.5 in. of rain drenched Los Angeles during a 24-hr period. The hurricane caused $2 million in damage, mostly to structures along the coast and to crops, and claimed 45 lives at sea. "El Cordonazo" produced 5.66 in. of rain at Los Angeles and 11.6 in. of rain at Mount Wilson, both records for the month of September. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
25 September 1956...The world's first transatlantic telephone cable system began operating (Clarenville, Newfoundland to Oban, Scotland). Previous cables had been limited to telegraph transmissions. (Today in Science History)
26 September 1580...English seaman Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to circumnavigate the globe. He had commenced his voyage around the world on 13 December 1577 with five ships, but returned with only one ship. During his voyage in the Pacific Ocean, he paused near San Francisco Bay and then traveled as far north as present-day Washington State. He brought back valuable information about the world's ocean to Queen Elizabeth I. (The History Channel)
26-27 September 1959...Typhoon Vera ravaged Honshu, Japan, the nation's largest island, leaving over 5000 dead, more than 40,000 injured, 1.5 million homeless and 40,000 homes destroyed. It was Japan's greatest storm disaster. (The Weather Doctor)
27 September 1854...After colliding with the French ship SS Vesta in dense fog, the American Collins Line steamship Arctic sank with more than 300 people on board near Cape Race, Newfoundland, marking the first great disaster in the Atlantic Ocean. (Wikipedia)
27 September 1922...Report on observations of experiments with short wave radio at the Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory in Anacostia, DC started US Navy development of radar. (Navy Historical Center)
27 September 1958...A typhoon caused the death of nearly 5000 people on Honshu, the main Japanese island. (Wikipedia)
28 September 1542...Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed into present-day San Diego (CA) Bay during the course of his explorations of the northwest shores of Mexico on behalf of Spain. His landing at Point Loma Head apparently was the first known European encounter with California. Before dying on the Channel Islands off the Santa Barbara coast in January 1543, he had explored much of the California coast. (The History Channel)
28 September 1850...An Act of Congress (9 Stat. L., 500, 504) provided for the systematic coloring and numbering of all buoys for, prior to this time, they had been painted red, white, or black, without any special system. The act "prescribed that buoys should be colored and numbered so that in entering from seaward red buoys with even numbers should be on the starboard or right hand side; black buoys with odd numbers on the port or left hand side; buoys with red and black horizontal stripes should indicate shoals with channel on either side; and buoys in channel ways should be colored with black and white perpendicular stripes." (US Coast Guard Historians Office)