China’s ‘Xuelong 2’ begins first ice station survey in central Arctic Ocean

Chinese research icebreaker Xuelong 2 Photo: VCG

From Global Times by Lu Wenao

 

China's research icebreaker Xuelong 2 began its first ice station survey of its current voyage near 84 degrees north latitude in the central Arctic Ocean on Sunday, marking the start of an approximately half-month comprehensive survey of the region.

After completing the first stage of comprehensive ocean station surveys on Friday, Xuelong 2 sailed toward higher latitudes and selected a large, relatively flat piece of sea ice about 1.5 meters thick in a densely packed ice zone for its first ice station.

According to Lin Long, captain of the Xuelong 2 sea ice team, the ice station survey conducted by the vessel during this voyage will include six short-term ice stations and one long-term ice station, the Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.

More than 20 types of scientific operations will be carried out, including the deployment of expendable ice-based buoys, snow and ice-core sampling, under-ice water sampling, sea-ice remote sensing, atmospheric profiling and under-ice oceanographic observations.

Lan Musheng, assistant to the chief scientist of the expedition, said the researchers will comprehensively monitor changes in parameters related to the atmosphere, sea ice, upper ocean and ecological processes beneath the ice as the sea ice melts.

The observations will provide scientific data for studying the rapid changes in Arctic sea ice, the mechanisms behind those changes and the evolution of Arctic ecosystems.

The ice station work is part of China's 16th Arctic Ocean scientific expedition, which was organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources. The expedition set sail from Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning Province on July 3.

The mission is being carried out by four vessels - Xuelong, Xuelong 2, Jidi and Tansuo-3 - and is expected to be completed in early October. 

The expedition is focusing on comprehensive surveys of sea ice, hydrology, biology, ecology and the atmospheric environment in key areas of the Arctic Ocean.

The two icebreakers Xuelong and Xuelong 2 will work together on the ice station surveys. Xuelong completed surveys at 12 ice stations on Friday.

Lin said the ice station locations planned for Xuelong 2 will work in coordination with those of Xuelong to form an observation array.

The arrangement will allow researchers to more deeply investigate the interactions among the atmosphere, sea ice and ocean in the central Arctic Ocean amid rapid environmental changes, as well as their coupling effects with the ecosystem.

The expedition is being conducted against a backdrop of rapid changes in the Arctic environment.

When the mission was launched in July, expedition leader Wang Jinhui said that global warming was driving rapid and profound changes in the Arctic natural environment, with trends such as sea-ice melting intensifying.

The expedition is therefore designed not only to monitor environmental changes but also to investigate frontier scientific questions, including the dynamic evolution of the oceanic crust.

Working on sea ice also presents significant safety challenges.

Low temperatures and complex ice-surface conditions can pose risks to researchers, while polar bears are considered the biggest safety risk during ice station operations.

The expedition team has therefore formulated specific bear-prevention and emergency response plans and equipped personnel with various types of bear-deterrence equipment and emergency supplies to ensure their safety.

Links :

• People.cn : China's research icebreaker Xuelong 2 carries out operations at ice stations in Arctic Ocean
• CGTN : Xuelong 2 begins 1st ice station survey during 16th Arctic expedition
• CBC : Canada, U.S. shadow Chinese research ships in the Arctic as concern grows over Snow Dragons' presence 
• Financial Times : China bypasses shipping chokepoints with 'Ice Silk Road' through Arctic

Why the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse appears to move backward on maps

A global map of the shadow path for the Aug. 12, 2026, total solar eclipse.
(Image credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio)

From LiveScience by Jamie Carter

While eclipse paths always move from west to east, this one seems to reverse direction on maps as it crosses the Arctic. Here's the geometry behind the illusion.

 
Every total solar eclipse travels from west to east, because the moon and Earth move in the same direction — counterclockwise, or from west to east.

Earth rotates eastward once every 24 hours, and the moon also travels eastward as it orbits our planet.

Because the moon's shadow moves across Earth faster than the planet rotates beneath it, the path of totality (the route of the moon's umbra, the darkest part of its inner shadow) always sweeps from west to east.

But if you've looked at maps of the Aug. 12, 2026, total solar eclipse, you may have noticed something puzzling. At first glance, the eclipse appears to do the exact opposite.

The path seems to begin in far northern Siberia, near the North Pole, before heading toward eastern Greenland, making it look as though the moon's shadow were traveling from east to west. It then appears to curve over western Iceland and northern Spain.

So what's going on?

The apparent reversal from Siberia to Greenland is an illusion.

It's created by geometry, but it's also a result of viewing the eclipse on a flat map instead of on a globe. The moon's shadow follows a smooth arc across Earth's curved surface and never changes direction, as shown by this animation.

This eclipse passes so close to the North Pole that the distortion caused by map projections makes the track appear to bend back on itself, when in reality, the shadow is simply sweeping over the top of the world.

An animation of the shadow path for the Aug. 12, 2026, total solar eclipse, from the point of view of the moon.
(Image credit: Michael Zeiler at EclipseAtlas.com/Fred Espenak at EclipseWise.com)

"The path of this eclipse also has a strong north-south component, the combined effect of Earth's rotation and the tilt of both Earth's axis and the Moon's orbit," experts at NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio explained. 

"Combined with Earth's rotation, the umbra's eastern motion during the first half of its travel is effectively canceled out."

This causes the shadow to sweep over the Arctic in a broad curve, instead of following the more familiar west-to-east path. 

On a flat map, that curved route can make it look as though the eclipse briefly reverses direction, even though it never actually does.

The moon's shadow has two parts — the narrow umbra, where observers experience totality, and the much broader penumbra, where only a partial eclipse is visible.

The widths of these shadows depend on the moon's distance from Earth, while their speed is influenced by the moon's orbit, Earth's rotation and the geometry of the eclipse.

If you are among the millions of people who will be in the moon's penumbra on Aug. 12, make sure to always wear a pair of certified solar eclipse glasses (or use a solar filter on your telescope or binoculars) to view the partial eclipse.

It is never safe to look directly at the sun, except during the moment of totality, when the sun is 100% covered.

 

Links :

• LiveScience :  Where and when to see the Aug. 12 solar eclipse — exact times for North America and Europe / Which solar eclipse viewing method is right for you? / How to make a solar eclipse viewer to safely watch the solar eclipse on August 12 / Why Aug. 12 could be the greatest single day and night for skywatchers for years 
• NASA : Total Solar Eclipse
• The Guardian : Europe’s total solar eclipse: the best place to see it and how to view it safely
• Sky&Telescope : Where to see the August 12th solar eclipse online 

How long can Iran weaponise Hormuz?

photograph: ap

From The Economist by 

 

Longer than the world hopes, according to our Hormuz dependency dashboard 

For years the world has feared that Iran has been pursuing nuclear arms.

Five months of war have taught the country’s rulers they were already in possession of a formidable weapon.

Geography and firepower give them de facto command of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid natural gas (lng) normally flows.

Choking that artery has given Iran’s leaders immense leverage over their adversaries.

Iran’s foes hope that Hormuz will prove to be a wasting asset.

Shutting Hormuz is “a card you can play once,” said Chris Wright, America’s energy secretary, in May.

 Gulf states are busily seeking alternative export routes.

Tom Barrack, Donald Trump’s envoy to Iraq and Syria, reckons the strait will be “an afterthought in two years”.

The Economist has interviewed experts and analysed data to build a “Hormuz dependency dashboard” to test these claims.

It points to three conclusions.

First, the staying power of the Iranian threat varies by commodity and country.

Second, Iran’s ability to cash in on the strait will diminish but may never vanish.

Third, even if the fees Iran can charge diminish over time, its strategic leverage will not necessarily fade in step.

Indeed, it may even deepen as the regime institutionalises its regional influence.

Start with how much Hormuz traffic could simply circumvent it.

Some 16m barrels of crude oil crossed the strait daily before the war.

That looks easiest to divert. Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline, which avoids the strait by crossing the peninsula to Yanbu on the Red Sea carried just 1m barrels a day (b/d) for export before the war.

Today it is running at its full 7m b/d capacity.

Nearly 5m b/d of that is exported; the rest feeds coastal refineries.

The United Arab Emirates (uae) has maxed out its Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, which carries 1.8m b/d, up from 1m b/d before the war.

Some 200,000 b/d flows through a smaller, once-idle Iraqi pipeline to Turkey.

 

chart: the economist

That narrows the crude-export deficit to 10m b/d. Now add new pipelines likely to be built as a result of the war.

Land acquisition poses no problems in the Gulf’s command-and-control economies, says a lawyer familiar with the subject.

The most advanced, in the uae, would run parallel to the existing line, adding 1.8m b/d by late 2027.

Iraq aims to raise the capacity of its pipeline to 1m b/d within a year.

It also plans a new one to connect its southern fields to existing routes to Jordan, Syria and Turkey.

Contracts for the 2.5m b/d project are being awarded and it should be done within four years, says Rahul Choudhary of Rystad Energy, a consultancy.

So by 2030 another 5m b/d of crude could bypass Hormuz.

But that still leaves the same amount with no alternative route.

And none of these fixes is foolproof.

Iraqi projects could be derailed by security risks and cross-border rows. Many dreamed-up pipelines never see the light of day.

Tankers leaving Yanbu for Asia usually sail via the Bab al-Mandab strait, where they are vulnerable to attacks by Iran-allied Houthi rebels.

Saudi crude could travel via the Suez canal or Egypt’s Sumed pipeline.

But even that route may not be safe: on July 29th a drone hit a tanker at Damietta, a port near Suez.

 

map: the economist

Iran—or its proxies—could attack any new infrastructure that it fears depletes Hormuz’s power. Barbara Leaf, who worked on Middle East policy in the Biden administration, reckons Iran would be less likely to hit such sites if the conflict ends in a negotiated settlement.

But the lingering risk of attacks could still push up insurance and financing costs for such projects.

Rerouting refined products is even harder.

Gulf countries shipped nearly 5m b/d of petrol, diesel and other fuels via Hormuz last year.

No overland pipeline alternatives exist for these.

Saudi Arabia has plans for one as part of a 2m-b/d expansion to its East-West corridor.

But that is still at an early stage and would need a similar increase in Yanbu’s capacity.

Iraq is sending 1,000 lorries of fuel oil to Syria a day, up from ten pre-war.

But that is slow and pricey.

Syria has earned $15m-20m in transit receipts from the traffic alone since the conflict began.

New refineries outside the Gulf would take even longer to build than pipelines and cost billions of dollars. 

 

chart: the economist

The problem is most acute for lng, exported almost exclusively by Qatar. No lng pipeline is under construction and no feasibility studies have been published. Qatar could in theory lay simpler gas pipes to Oman, but they would need to carry as much gas as Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines once delivered to Europe. More implausible still, Qatar’s entire liquefaction complex would need recreating on the Arabian Sea coast.

There is some room for hope. Most importers can, in time, wean themselves off Hormuz supplies. A few years of high prices could elicit an extra 2-3m b/d from the Americas and beyond. China’s refineries still hold ample spare capacity. lng is riding the fastest expansion in its history. So Iran’s leverage over global prices will weaken before the decade is out.

The same is not true of its hold over its Gulf neighbours—and not just because a sizeable share of their energy exports will still need Hormuz for years. Many also depend on the strait for imports. The Gulf Arab states rely on external suppliers for 95% of their grain but only Saudi Arabia has decent bulk-handling terminals, and these are not big enough to supply the whole region. Nor is moving lots of grain, iron ore or bauxite overland viable: a single Panamax vessel carries 60,000 tonnes of cereal, enough to fill 2,000 trucks.

 

chart: the economist

One obvious fix would be more regional railways but these would also be slow and costly to build.

Past mining-railway projects in Australia, built across similar desert terrain, have cost $12m-15m a kilometre. So a Red Sea-to-Qatar line could run to $25bn or more.

They have strategic grain stockpiles that typically cover four to six months of demand.

But there is no equivalent for containerised goods such as fresh food, medicines and appliances.

The region’s biggest container port, Jebel Ali, which has a capacity for nearly 20m 20-foot equivalent units (teu) a year, sits inside the Gulf.

Outside the strait, the largest is Jeddah which can hold 7.5m teu.

It was already running near full tilt before the war, says Alexis Ellender of Kpler, a data firm.

So our analysis suggests that Iran will be able to weaponise Hormuz for some time—and monetise it. Gulf states’ varying exposure may mean they diverge in what they will tolerate to get their ships moving.

Qatar has suggested that it could accept temporary fees; others have held a tougher line.

But now even the hawkish uae has softened: it is starting to trade with Iran again and their diplomats are talking.

Assuming it retains control of Hormuz, how much can Iran hope to make from it?

An Iranian mp claimed in June that the country was collecting $1.5m-2m per vessel transiting the strait.

That implies takings of more than $35bn a year, assuming traffic at about 70% of pre-war levels.
You cannot be serious

That figure is eye-popping—and implausible.

Rates set at gunpoint, in a market with nowhere else to go, will not survive a settlement allowing near-normal flows to resume.

Draft legislation submitted to Iran’s parliament in June envisages rates based on cargo volume, value and vessel type, with one constraint: the charge must stay below the cost of the next-best alternative.

Prices could also vary depending on the nationality of the owner or charterer.

Shahin Iraninejad of gssi, a sovereign-risk advisory, points out that another legislative proposal posits an average fee of €3 a tonne in Iranian waters and €2 in international waters.

He puts expected future income at a more modest $2-3bn a year.

As bypass capacity grows, that would drop—but not uniformly.

Crude tankers can hope for a bargain soon; oil-product, lng and bulk carriers may face higher fees for years.

Whether such revenue flows prove durable depends on shipping firms’ ability and willingness to pay.

As long as charges are predictable, easy to settle and below war-risk premiums, many probably will, says Richard Meade of Lloyd’s List, a shipping journal.

But that would change if vessels repeatedly manage to traverse the strait without paying Iran.

A tension emerges: Iran needs peace with America for its fee regime to function.

But it will need to keep up attacks on disobedient tankers to ensure the fees are paid—which could make peace hard to maintain.

On the brighter side, Iran might drop its fees faster than it needs to. Its strategic objective, says Mr Meade, appears to be maintaining market participation and reinforcing its role as gatekeeper, rather than maximising revenue.

More gloomily, it wants something more lasting: a governance system—whether a bilateral framework with Oman, a maritime-services architecture or a permit regime.

The ease with which Iran seized its new weapon shocked its foes. Its grip on Hormuz looks set to outlast the war.

 

Links : 

• The Economist :  Can Iran keep weaponising Hormuz? / Gulf states should make a deal with Iran on Hormuz 

Divers recover a bottle of Guinness from a 162-year-old shipwreck

The site of the shipwreck of the Mindoro, which sunk in 1864. (Stefan Panis)

From WashingtonPost by Miriam Waldvogel

The team discovered the bottle with a seal that says “Guinness Extra Stout, London” while exploring a shipwreck in the English Channel

The dark glass bottle was one of dozens strewn around the sunken ship when the divers spotted it. Unlike many others, though, its seal was intact, and up on the surface, they could make out the words: “Guinness Extra Stout, London.”

The antique ale is thought to be 162 years old.

The team discovered the bottle while diving a shipwreck in the English Channel last year but waited to publicize the find more extensively while they conducted research, including contacting the company itself. They hope, with the help of a lab at KU Leuven, a university in Belgium, there’s a chance the historical draft could even be re-created.
“It is quite rare to find something with a seal on it,” said Stefan Panis, one of the divers. “We are very, very excited to see what the test will reveal.”

 

A bottle has a seal that reads "Guinness Extra Stout London." (Stefan Panis)

 

A bell found at the site indicates that the wreck is a ship called the Mindoro, which set sail for Vancouver from London on Nov. 20, 1864. A week later, navigating through a treacherous part of the English Channel, it collided with another ship and sank to the bottom of the ocean, where its contents sat in cold and dark conditions — ideal for preserving a bottle of beer, like the back of a fridge.

If the bottle managed to keep out the seawater, there is a chance the Guinness might still be sippable — the alcohol would have prevented things from growing inside, said Kevin Verstrepen, who runs a lab at KU Leuven that studies yeast and fermentation.
But the Guinness brewed at the time might not have been quite as palatable as modern brews.
“In the old days, brewers were not as good working sterilely. Probably, from a microbial point of view, it was a bit of a zoo there,” Verstrepen said, which means the beer could have sour or funky flavors.
Additionally, Guinness made in that period would not have been carbonated by nitrogen, which was introduced in the 1960s and gives the beer its smooth texture and creamy head.

The company has been based in Dublin since 1759. But there is also evidence that at least some Guinness was bottled in London in the mid-19th century.

Diageo, the British alcohol conglomerate that now owns Guinness, did not respond to a request for comment. The company previously told the Irish Times that it was evaluating the find.
There is probably more Guinness to be discovered in the wreck. While the one recovered bottle was found out in the open, the divers also found wooden crates packed with bottles and stored upside-down. They also plan to examine records that they think will contain the ship’s manifest.

The divers plan to go back in two weeks to recover four additional bottles, two for the Verstrepen lab and two for the company, Panis said.
It’s unlikely that the lab will be able directly recover original yeast, Verstrepen said, because beer yeast does not have a long lifespan after bottling. However, he thinks they can find traces of yeast DNA in the hopes of finding a close living relative to re-create the brew.

“With sequencing the DNA … we can see exactly where it is on this family tree, and then we can look for modern living siblings of that yeast,” he said.
As rare as the find is, one of Panis’s partners, Pawel Truszynski, had experience in unearthing antique alcohol before. Truszynski was part of another team that in 2024 discovered a 19th-century shipwreck in the Baltic Sea laden with 100 sealed bottles of champagne.
In 2014, a different group of researchers recovered a 200-year-old bottle of distilled spirit from a shipwreck off the coast of Poland.
And a small brewery in Sunderland, England, at one point sold a porter made with yeast cultured from old bottles found in a different shipwreck in the English Channel, that one from 1825.

Surfin penguin

This is the moment a Cape penguin jumped onto a surfboard and rode the waves pic.twitter.com/IIfRYQExEH

— Science girl (@sciencegirl) August 6, 2026