Pacific Ocean

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China's 'Routine' Test Launch Was Anything But

Nation test-fired intercontinental ballistic missile into international waters for first time since 1980

(Newser) - China hasn't test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile into international waters in more than four decades—until now. The AP reports that China launched an ICBM with a dummy warhead on Wednesday, and that the missile fell into the Pacific Ocean as it was intended to, according to the nation'...

Final Resting Place of ISS May One Day Be a 'Treasure Trove'

Underwater conditions at remote Point Nemo keep spacecraft relatively well preserved

(Newser) - Even defunct spacecraft need a final resting place. For Russia's Mir space station, as well as hundreds of other spacecraft from the US, Russia, Europe, and Japan, that graveyard is situated around the remote Point Nemo in the South Pacific, east of New Zealand—and it will eventually claim...

Underwater Mountains Serve Up Dozens of New Species

On this expedition in the South Pacific, at least 50 new ones emerged

(Newser) - Over 40 days exploring an 1,800-mile underwater mountain chain extending from Chile to Easter Island, an international team of scientists discovered an entirely unknown species once a day on average. The team led by Erin Easton of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Javier Sellanes of Chile'...

3 Rescued From Remote Atoll Thanks to Their 'Ingenuity'

Rescue came after US Navy aircraft spotted 'HELP' message spelled out in palm leaves on the beach

(Newser) - In a search area covering more than 100,000 square miles in the remote Pacific, the 31-acre atoll was a needle in a haystack. Still, authorities discovered the three men stranded for days on the uninhabited island thanks to their ingenuity—spelled out in palm fronds. The men in their...

'Worrying' Find Made in Pacific Plastic Research
'Worrying' Find Made in
Pacific Plastic Research
NEW STUDY
Mar 21, 2024 10:30 AM CDT

'Worrying' Find Made in Pacific Plastic Research

Researchers discover high concentration of microplastics in an unexpected area

(Newser) - The plastic problem in the world's oceans is a lot bigger than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, researchers say. In a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology , researchers say they used a catamaran to measure plastic waste and microplastics in nine spots in the open ocean...

'Tremendous Wave Energy' Sends 8 to Hospital in California

Rogue wave crashes down on bystanders at Ventura's Pierpont Beach

(Newser) - "It's really exciting," one local said earlier this week of the giant waves that have been slamming into the California coastline of late, attracting gawkers who appear unfazed by the potential danger. A group of bystanders in the southern part of the state got more excitement on...

As They Got to the Seafloor, He 'Knew We Were Making History'

Explorer, retired Navy Capt. Don Walsh, part of first crew to reach deepest part of ocean, is dead at 92

(Newser) - Retired Navy Capt. Don Walsh, an explorer who in 1960 was part of a two-man crew that made the first voyage to the deepest part of the ocean—to the "snuff-colored ooze" at the bottom of the Pacific's Mariana Trench—has died. He was 92. Walsh died Nov....

Octopuses Are Typically Solitary, Yet Thousands Gather Here
Octopus Researchers Crack
Mystery of Meeting Place
NEW STUDY
Aug 24, 2023 11:52 AM CDT

Octopus Researchers Crack Mystery of Meeting Place

Spot off the California coast is a mating and nesting ground

(Newser) - Two miles below the surface of the ocean some 80 miles off central California sits the world's largest known assembly of octopuses. This "octopus garden," featuring thousands of the typically solitary mollusks, stunned researchers who discovered it on the foothills of an inactive underwater volcano in 2018....

California's Waves Are Getting Bigger
In California, 13-Foot
Waves Are a 'Harbinger'
new study
Aug 4, 2023 1:15 PM CDT

In California, 13-Foot Waves Are a 'Harbinger'

Study says giant swells have become more common, with signs pointing to climate change

(Newser) - Waves are getting bigger, and surf at least 13 feet tall is becoming more common off California's coast as the planet warms, according to innovative new research that tracked the increasing height from historical data gathered over the past 90 years. Oceanographer Peter Bromirski at the Scripps Institution of...

Mexico Finds Capsized Boat of Missing US Sailor

Mexican Navy spots Baltimore man Donald Lawson's racing yacht off Acapulco

(Newser) - A sailboat belonging to a Baltimore man who lost contact with family two weeks ago while sailing home from Mexico has reportedly been spotted capsized some 300 miles off the Mexican coast. A Mexican Navy search plane spotted what is believed to be Donald Lawson's 60-foot trimaran racing yacht...

Sailor Stranded at Sea Tells His Tale

Tim Shaddock, adrift for months, relied on his dog, journaling, and meditation

(Newser) - He quit his corporate job and moved to Mexico to pursue his dream of sailing solo across the ocean. Australian Timothy Shaddock, 54, bought his 30-foot catamaran two years ago in the Mexican Pacific resort of Puerto Vallarta. He needed a place to live and he liked the isolation. "...

UN Watchdog to Japan: OK to Dump Wastewater in Sea

Critics aren't happy about release of radioactive water from Fukushima nuclear power plant

(Newser) - A little radioactive water in the Pacific? Not that big a deal, at least according to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, which gave the OK Tuesday for Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to dump more than a million tons of treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. NPR notes...

We May Never Find a Fish Deeper Than This

Snailfish filmed just above suspected death zone in Pacific Ocean's Izu-Ogasawara trench

(Newser) - Scientists have filmed the deepest fish ever observed, an incredible 27,349 feet, or 8,336 meters, deep in the Izu-Ogasawara trench southeast of Japan. The young snailfish was spotted calmly swimming by sea robots exploring the depths last September. The deepest fish observed previously was a snailfish at 8,...

DDT Dumped Decades Ago Off LA Coast Is Still Potent

Broad effort tries to assess the Pacific Ocean contamination introduced decades ago

(Newser) - Research revealed this week confirmed some scientists' worst fears about the dumping of barrels of DDT off the California coast in the 1940s and '50s: Much of the banned toxic chemical remains in its most potent form. "We still see original DDT on the seafloor from 50, 60,...

Whale Makes 'Amazing' but Heartbreaking Journey

Humpback with broken back made 3.1K-mile trek from Canada to Hawaii but likely won't live long

(Newser) - It's a story both inspiring and heartbreaking, and one that marine wildlife experts have been monitoring with admiration and deep concern. For at least the last decade, a humpback whale named Moon has been on the radar of scientists at the Fin Island whale research station off of British...

Diver Captures Amazing Giant Octopus Encounter
Diver Captures 'Mind-Blowing'
Giant Octopus Encounter
in case you missed it
Nov 13, 2022 7:13 AM CST

Diver Captures 'Mind-Blowing' Giant Octopus Encounter

It 'was giving me a hug,' she says

(Newser) - Canadian high school teacher Andrea Humphreys has done almost 700 dives, and she says she's never experienced anything as "mind-blowing" as her encounter with a giant Pacific octopus. She says that when she started filming the creature during a dive off the east coast of Vancouver Island, it...

New Island Emerges From Pacific
The World Has
a New Island
Sep 25, 2022 6:06 AM CDT

The World Has a New Island

Latest addition to Tonga islands after volcanic eruption might be short-lived

(Newser) - The world's land area is a tiny bit bigger than it was a month ago thanks to an eruption in the southwest Pacific Ocean. NASA's Earth Observatory says an island rose above the surface of the water around 12 hours after an eruption began Sept. 10 on a...

International Space Station's Final Resting Place: Point Nemo

NASA releases updated transition plan

(Newser) - NASA on Tuesday provided an updated International Space Station transition plan —including what will happen when deorbit occurs in 2031. The report states that "based on the ISS structural health analysis performed to date, there is high confidence that ISS life can be further extended through 2030,"...

We're About to Get Unique Look at the Life of Salmon

First-of-its-kind international expedition will study them in the sea in winter

(Newser) - Scientists have a pretty good idea of the ways of salmon when the fish are in inland waters at the beginning and end of their lives. But that stretch in between, when they spend up to seven years at sea? Not so much. Now, however, a first-of-its-kind international expedition is...

We Already Have Our First Named Storm of Season

Andres is earliest tropical storm on record to form in eastern Pacific

(Newser) - Hurricane season doesn't start in the eastern Pacific until Saturday, but the first tropical storm of the season is already here: Andres, which formed hundreds of miles off the west coast of Mexico and had sustained winds of 40mph Sunday. While tropical systems are known to develop before the...

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