oceanography

Researchers say two more major calving events are likely. A massive slab of floating ice broke away from Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland on August 4, 2026, creating a 76.4 km² ice island. An international research group led in part by the University of Ottawa says it was Petermann’s largest floating ice loss since 2012 [...]

A 43,681-dive analysis finds that today's average deep-sea camera system covers just 2.9 square kilometres a year, making exhaustive visual coverage impossible without a different strategy.

Our planet is constantly carved by the flow of wind, water, and ice. These images, all shortlisted by the International Aerial Photographer of the Year competition, highlight those forces. From meandering rivers and spreading deltas to cracked valleys and windswept dunes, flow is all around us. (Image credit: Various Artists/IAPOTY, see images for details; via […]

A new term published in Nature this month gives surfers, scientists and policymakers a shared language for the forests, reefs, rivers and coastlines that shape the world's best waves – and the ways we can and should protect them The post Beyond the break: the ecosystems behind our ocean’s most iconic waves appeared first on Oceanographic .

Environmental physicists reveal fluctuations over the past 230,000 years based on the isotopic composition of deep-sea sediment samples

Scientific Reports, Published online: 21 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41598-026-66449-6 Passive acoustic monitoring of tidally controlled bubble phase transitions at the seabed

Nature Communications, Published online: 20 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-76931-4 Intense storms can alter sea ice cover, and this study finds that storm impacts vary seasonally and are stronger in the southern hemisphere. As a result, storms increase global annual ice area, which is an effect that has amplified in recent years.

We chased a weather balloon across Montana and never found it In June of 2025, I worked with New England Sci-Tech as a part of Apex to launch StratoSpore: my first ballooning project. I used this opportunity to use algae as a biosensor for altitude, and I learned a lot in the process. Wanting to experiment in the stratosphere again, I worked with Sam Flynn to make a reliable and flight-ready payl…

IntroductionMaritime Antarctic meltwater lakes are highly sensitive to atmospheric variability, yet their short-term hydrothermal responses remain poorly understood because most studies rely on seasonal or daily observations that cannot resolve sub-daily atmosphere–lake interactions.MethodsThis study investigated Yanou Lake, a shallow maritime Antarctic meltwater lake, using continuous 5‐min mete…

npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, Published online: 20 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41612-026-01516-3 Impact of heterogeneous particle distributions on secondary ice production through the rime-splintering process in isolated convective clouds

Scientific Data, Published online: 20 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41597-026-08146-7 A high-resolution seismo-acoustic and video dataset of a lahar at Volcán de Fuego, Guatemala

The United States plans to send a military hospital ship to Peru’s Pacific coast next year to help with the effects of El Nino

The same instruments used to measure earthquakes pick up vibrations as ocean waves put pressure on the sea floor. Four decades of data tell a story about ocean storms.

A sea voyage and a satellite mission will combine to produce a more detailed picture of the ocean’s currents than ever before.