Octopuses use their arms to sense and respond to microbiomes on the seafloor

  

The California two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides).
Photo by Anik Grearson.

 

From Mongabay by Pepper St. Clair

Octopus suckers can sense and react to microbiomes in their environment.
Distinct microbial populations on objects relevant to the octopus’s survival, like eggs and prey, inform the animal’s behavior.
Scientists found that in response to different microbial signals, chemotactile receptors trigger reflexive responses in octopus suckers and arms.

From the beginning of life on Earth, microbes, small but influential single-celled organisms, have shaped the environment that animals must adapt to in order to survive.
Distinct microbial populations, known as microbiomes, inhabit nearly every surface on Earth.
Now scientists have found that octopuses can detect signals from the microbiomes they encounter, revealing one of the ways these cephalopods navigate their environment.

Humans can also detect signs of microbial activity, such as when we smell that meat has gone bad or milk has spoiled.
But we can’t sense those microbes by touch.
Octopuses, on the other hand, touch and taste the world with their arms, which collectively have more neurons than their central brain. Those arms are also lined with chemotactile receptors, which enable them to reflexively react to specific chemical signals from microbiomes as they explore their environment, according to research published recently in Cell.

Microbes have long been known to influence internal animal development, disease, and digestion.
To explore whether the microbiomes in our environment also shape external animal behavior, a team led by biologist Rebecka Sepela, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, chose as their subject the octopus — an animal that does a lot of exploring by touch.

“There’s a huge interest in this right now.
From human biology to animal biology, from agriculture to medicine,” said Spencer Nyholm, an invertebrate zoologist and microbiologist at the University of Connecticut, who was not involved in the study.
“We are surrounded by microbes, and they’re critically important for our health.”

 

The California two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides).
Photo by Anik Grearson.

Sepela and her team exposed brooding California two-spot octopuses (Octopus bimaculoides) to microbes found on seafloor surfaces that the animals would likely encounter in their environment.
The scientists made fake octopus eggs out of a nontoxic gel derived from algae and loaded them with a molecule derived from bacteria that the researchers collected from octopus eggs that had been ejected from a clutch.
The octopus mothers rejected those fake eggs much quicker than fake eggs that were not treated with the molecule.

The scientists also isolated a molecule from the microbiome of decaying crabs to see how the octopus would respond to it.
The animals quickly dismissed plastic toy crabs doused in the molecule, exactly as they would react to an actual decaying crab.
When the team gave the octopuses the same plastic crabs without the decaying crab molecule, the octopuses grabbed and held on to them as if they were typical prey.

The results confirm that octopuses can detect and respond to microbial signals, which makes sense given their habitat, Sepela said.
“It’s living on a seafloor world that is completely coated in microbes,” she said.
“Most of the octopus’s body is dedicated towards arms that it uses to taste and touch every surface that it comes into contact with.”

When exposed to the microbial signals, individual octopus suckers reacted reflexively, such as retracting from or adhering to the surface where the molecule was detected.
These reactions were made possible by chemotactile receptors in the cells of octopus suckers that initiate a physiological response when they bind to specific molecules.
One of the receptors the team studied, called CRT1, is “especially sticky,” Sepela said.
“It detects a lot of different molecules.”

 

First author Rebecka Sepela and co-author Nicholas Bellono looking at a saltwater tank where octopus behavior is observed.
Photo by Niles Singer.

The findings are impressive but also important, Nyholm said.
The world is “a microbial sea,” and an animal’s ability to understand the microbiomes around it is critical not only for the individual or its species, but for the whole ecosystem, he said.

By studying the octopus’s insight into the microbial world, we can understand how microbes communicate with animal cells, Sepela said.
“I think it’s just really cool to think about how connected we are with a world that we can’t even see.”

 

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : What do we owe the octopus? / Eight reasons why octopuses are the geniuses of the ocean / World's largest deep-sea octopus nursery discovered / 'A symbol of what humans shouldn't be doing': the new ... / Dance of the Dumbo octopus / Watch baby octopuses hatch from a surprising deep-sea ... / Squid and octopus switch on camouflage / Deep Intellect : inside the mind of the octopus / Giant Pacific octopus babies: thousands of eggs hatch / Evolution of mimicry in octopuses
  

Giant 115-foot (35-meter) waves observed from space

Credit: ESA 

 

From Techno-Science by Cédric Depond

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Observation satellites now offer an unprecedented view of ocean movements.
They allow for precise tracking of the trajectory of waves generated by distant storms, long after the winds that formed them have dissipated.
This ability to trace wave energy over thousands of kilometers provides information to better understand the impact of storms on shorelines, even distant ones.

The SWOT satellite mission, the result of an international collaboration, provided crucial data in December 2024.
By capturing ocean surface topography with unprecedented accuracy, the instrument enabled the quantification of the height and wavelength of swells generated by an exceptional storm in the North Pacific.

These direct observations fill a gap, as existing numerical models had until then relied on few concrete measurements for the most intense events.
The analysis of this information was the subject of a publication in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The meteorological phenomenon and its oceanic footprint

The storm, identified as Eddie, produced a wave field of remarkable magnitude.
Measurements indicate a significant wave height reaching 64.6 feet (19.7 meters).
Some individual waves were even estimated to have crests exceeding 115 feet (35 meters).
These values place this event among the most powerful of the last three decades, rivaling the Hercules storm of 2014 in the Atlantic.

The particularity of this low-pressure system lies in the distance traveled by its energy.
The swells it generated crossed the Pacific, passed through the Drake Passage at the tip of South America, and continued their journey into the tropical Atlantic.
This journey of nearly 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) demonstrates the ocean's ability to transport a driving force over intercontinental distances, long after the winds that gave it birth have dissipated.

The energy contained in these long waves manifested spectacularly on the coasts of Hawaii and California.
The power of the swells allowed for the holding of surfing competitions requiring exceptional conditions, such as the Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.
Beyond this spectacle, these breaking waves provided scientists with a tangible demonstration of energy propagation over long distances, validating satellite observations with observable physical manifestations.

Major developments in sea state modeling 

 
The data collected by the SWOT satellite led to a significant revision of the physical understanding of wave energy.
Previous models, which predicted a distribution of energy across a broad spectrum of wavelengths, seemed to overestimate the importance of the longest waves.
The precise analysis of the spectra revealed that the majority of the power was actually concentrated in a limited number of dominant waves, characteristic of the storm itself.

This discovery fundamentally changes the assessment of risk associated with distant swells.
The analogy proposed by researchers compares this energy to that of a boxer relying on the power of a few precise punches rather than a succession of less intense impacts.
This concentration of energy in the main waves explains their ability to retain erosive and destructive potential after thousands of kilometers of travel.

The implications for coastal forecasting and infrastructure design are major.
A better quantification of the actual energy transported by swells allows for the refinement of construction standards for dikes, ports, and offshore structures.
The scientific community now has an unprecedented validation tool to improve the accuracy of models used to anticipate the impact of extreme storms on coastlines, including those not directly hit by weather systems.

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Science investigates freak waves / Chasing the world's biggest wave: Surfer turns to space ... / Researchers measure giant "internal waves" that help ... / Terrifying 20m-tall 'rogue waves' are actually real / The ocean's hidden waves show their power / Studying and surfing the ocean's monster waves / What is a Rossby wave?

NASA found a secret military base buried 100 feet deep in Greenland’s Ice Shelf

The U.S.Army's Top Secret Arctic City Under the Ice! "Camp Century" Restored Classified Film 

In the late 1950s, during the height of the Cold War, the US military constructed a secret base in the Arctic for "research" purposes. 

Some theorists claim that it was actually used as a covert nuclear weapons storage &/or testing facility as part of Top Secret "Project Iceworm" with the ultimate objective of covertly placing medium-range missiles under the ice sheet -- close enough to strike the Soviet Union, while remaining hidden from the Danish government. 

Others have made even grander claims - that Camp Century was actually a weather manipulation experiment ...
or a U.S. Military administered Alien / UFO base! 

The whole truth may never be known. 

This video is the actual declassified US ARMY FILM documenting the construction process. 

What really happened there afterwards remains a mystery.

From PopMechanics by Connor Lagore

The base is abandoned, but the U.S. Army left some waste behind.

Pictorial Parade//Getty Images

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:NASA scientists have found the remains of a U.S.
military base buried 100 feet below the surface of the ice in Greenland.
Camp Century, as it was called, was a Cold War-era satellite for the U.S.
Army used as a front for a planned arsenal of nuclear missiles.
While the plan never came to fruition and the base was shortly abandoned, there are still thousands of gallons of nuclear waste buried beneath the ice.

Over the years, we’ve dug up a lot of stuff buried underneath layers upon layers of ice.
Ancient tools, animal corpses, World War II planes, volcanoes—you name it, ice has buried it, and we’ve found it.

During an April 2024 flight over the Greenland Ice Sheet, NASA scientist Chad Greene added a pretty surprising entrant to that list: a secret military base.
After taking radar images of the ice, Greene was surprised to see what was shortly thereafter confirmed to be Camp Century—a 65-year-old Cold War United States military base buried 100 feet deep in the massive ice sheet.

“We were looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century,” said Alex Gardner, a cryospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who helped lead the project.
“We didn’t know what it was at first.”

Built in secret between June of 1959 and October of 1960 by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, Camp Century—also known as “the city under the ice”—was comprised of 21 underground tunnels spanning 9,800 feet, according to Interesting Engineering.
In radar images of the site, Greene said, many of the base’s individual structures are clearly discernable.
To study the base, NASA used Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), a technology similar to LiDAR that is commonly used in searching for hidden structures like Maya ruins.
The difference is that where LiDAR uses laser light, UAVSAR uses radio waves. 

 

Localization with the GeoGarage platform (DGA nautical raster charts)

The U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland agreement in 1951 “to negotiate arrangements under which armed forces of the parties to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may make use of facilities in Greenland in defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area,” according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.
(Greenland was, at the time of the agreement, a county of Denmark).
This allowed the U.S. to build bases in Greenland.

Even without the -70 degree temperatures and 125-mile-per-hour winds that were possible on the ice shelf, the construction of Camp Century sounds like a total nightmare.
The camp was built from 6,000 tons of material, transported via heavy bobsleds that topped out at two miles per hour.
Materials were shipped to Thule, another U.S. base (this one above ice)—on the sleds, that trek was a 70-hour trip.

Army engineers first dug trenches—the longest of which was a 1,000-foot-long passageway called Main Street—deep in the snow and ice before wooden buildings and steel roofs built out Camp Century.

The crown jewel of the base was one of the first PM-2 medium-power nuclear reactors that, in the freezing conditions, had to be treated with the utmost care in order to power the site.

While operating at the base, scientists made major geological breakthroughs.
They were some of the first to study ice cores, and soil from Greenland itself revealed an ancient history of verdant forestry and diverse wildlife.

But that research was just a cover-up.

Camp Century itself was not a secret.
Its establishment was known, and the Army even made a promotional video for the project.
The scientific research angle, as significant as the discoveries were, was merely a front for a major U.S.
nuclear weapon strategy of which the Danish government wasn’t even aware.
Known as “Project Iceworm,” the plan was for Camp Century to house ballistic missiles under the Greenland ice.
An additional 52,000 square miles of tunnels were planned—enough to fit 600 missiles.
It would require 60 launch centers to be built, and would be manned by 11,000 soldiers living full-time in the city under the ice.

If that sounds impossible on a number of levels to you, you’re not alone.
Project Iceworm never came to be because of a litany of obstacles, almost all of them boiling down to some version of “well, this simply isn’t feasible.” By 1967, Camp Century was decommissioned and abandoned—a frigid fossil of the U.S.’s Cold War efforts.
The potential nuclear weaponplan was publicized by the Danish Institute of International Affairs in 1997.

So, now the remains sit alone, buried by even more ice and snow in the 57 years since the closure of the base and giving its ‘Camp Century’ name even more significance.
Ultimately, it’s just a harmless footnote in U.S. military history.
Right?

Well, not exactly.
As is U.S. tradition during international ventures, there were some residual drawbacks.
Remember that nuclear reactor that was lugged piece by piece below the ice, only to operate for 33 months? Well, during that time, it produced over 47,000 gallons of nuclear waste, according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.
When the base shut down, they removed the reactor, but not the waste, which is still lying under the ice—ice that is in serious peril with a warming climate.
Right now, it’s just sitting there, frozen in time.
But a study by experts has projected that the base could begin losing ice by 2090.

“They thought it would never be exposed,” William Colgan, a climate and glacier scientist at Toronto’s York University and the leader of the study, told The Guardian in 2016.
“Back then, in the ‘60s, the term global warming had not even been coined.
But the climate is changing, and the question now is whether what’s down there is going to stay down there.”

Links :

• Business Insider : See photos of Camp Century, a secret US military base built beneath Greenland's ice sheet 

From Charybdis to Scylla: how an uncorrected maritime error traps Lebanon in a regional dilemma

From Libanaews by Bernard Raymond Jabre  (translated from French)

 

Point 1 is a fundamental geographical point that determines the course of Lebanon's maritime borders. Originally, this point was to be located on the mainland, exactly at the terminal point of the Green Line separating Israel and Lebanon before the sea. 

This position corresponded to the official land border between the two countries and served as the basis for calculating the maritime delimitation according to international law.

Here is a clear, structured, and comparative summary of the two major technical studies that provided the framework for Lebanon's southern maritime delimitation:

1.  The UKHO (United Kingdom Hydrographic Office) study
2.  The study by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Hydrographic Office
This is the key to understanding the origin of the discrepancies between “Point 1” chosen in 2007 and “Line 23/Line 29” claimed later.

 

 

1. UKHO study (2006–2011)

Mandate entrusted by the Siniora government to assist Lebanon in preparing a maritime delimitation in accordance with international law.

UKHO objective

• Determine a fair line in accordance with UNCLOS (Articles 15, 74, 83).
• Select relevant baselines on the Lebanese coast.
• Propose a technically defensible line for the EEZ declaration.

UKHO method

• High-resolution coastline analysis (orthophotos + UK Admiralty nautical charts).• Selection of base points according to:

o  mainland ,
o  natural projections ,
o  absence of artificial disturbances  (dikes, ports, artificial beaches, etc.).

• Calculation of the equidistance between the Lebanese and Israeli points.

UKHO conclusion: two options

UKHO presented  two possible routes  to the Lebanese government:

Option A — Line 23 (considered “conservative”)
• Based on  less aggressive  basepoints closer to the coast.
• Represents a moderate version that is  less politically contentious .
• Implies a loss of approximately  860 km²  compared to the interpretation most favorable to Lebanon.

Option B — Line 29 (considered “legally defensible”)
• Based on the most advanced and geometrically correct base points.
• Strictly follows the principle of equidistance unaffected by coastal distortions.
• Gives Lebanon ≈ 1,430 km² of additional EEZ compared to Line 23.
• Recognized by UKHO engineers as legally sound under UNCLOS.

 

 Key point:
➡  UKHO has clearly stated that Line 29 is defensible, but the political decision rests with Lebanon.

2. Lebanese Army Study (2011–2020)
Conducted by the  Lebanese Armed Forces Hydrographic Office (LAF)  + geodesy experts.

Army objective

 
• Verify the validity of the line submitted to the UN (Line 23).
• Determine whether a more favorable route exists under maritime law.
• Correct the errors made in 2007 during the Lebanon–Cyprus agreement.

Main conclusion  of the army

 
1. “Point 1” chosen in 2007 is incorrect.
• Lebanon accepted a point  artificially moved northward ,
•  not located on the actual land border ,
• contrary to the requirements of UNCLOS, which stipulates that the EEZ must begin  from the undisputed land border .

Consequence:

 
➡ This shift reduces Lebanon's projection angle towards the sea → loss vis-à-vis Israel  and  vis-à-vis Cyprus (geometric domino effect). 

 

 2. The LAF confirms that Line 29 is the only correct one.
• Military engineers demonstrate that the actual Lebanese base points (natural rock, no quay, no sand deposits) allow for a much more advantageous route.
• Line 29 is strictly compliant with undistorted equidistance.

• Supported by:

o terrestrial GPS surveys,
o UKHO charts,
o high-precision orthophotos.

Technical conclusion of the army:

 
➡ Lebanon is entitled to ≈ 1,430 km² more than indicated in its official declaration (Line 23).  

 

  3. The army requests amendment of Decree 6433/2011

• Decree 6433, which freezes line 23, should have been amended.
• The army prepared the technical documents for correction.
• But the government (Aoun–Diab then Mikati) never signed it, despite full technical support.

Comparison between UKHO and the Lebanese Army
Criterion                     UKHO                                                          Lebanese Army (LAF)
Objective                    Provide options in accordance                    Determine the  actual  line according                                        with the law                                                to UNCLOS
Politically accepted route     Line 23                                              Rejected – proposes Line 29
Baseline analysis       Technical + political caution                        Strictly technical
Position on Line 29    Legally defensible                                       Legally binding
Position on Point 1     No political decision                                   Confirms that Point 1 2007 is incorrect
Consequence              Loss of 860 km² compared to optimum      Cumulative loss of 1,430 km² if not                                                                                                              corrected

 

 

Final summary

✔  UKHO provided two solutions:
•  Line 23: politically prudent
•  Line 29: technically correct and defensible

✔  The Lebanese army confirmed that:
• Point 1 of 2007 is incorrect ,
•  Line 23 is suboptimal,
•  Line 29 is the only one that complies with international maritime law.

✔  By not claiming Line 29 at the UN,
Lebanon automatically lost its ability to claim the 1,430 km² — which Israel then exploited in the 2022 negotiations.  

 

Lebanon’s losses could exceed 5,000 km² of its exclusive economic zone.

 

Why did Lebanon give up its optimal maritime boundary?

Lebanon is located at a strategic crossroads, both geopolitically and in terms of energy.

Since the discovery of gas and oil reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, the issue of delimiting its maritime border with Israel has become central.

However, despite solid scientific and legal studies—notably those carried out by the Lebanese army and the British Hydrographic Office—the country has chosen not to claim its maximum maritime boundary, even though it is defensible under international law.

A legally defensible optimal line

The famous “Line 29” corresponded to the exact projection of the land border between Lebanon and Israel onto the sea. 

According to experts, this line would have allowed Lebanon to secure its entire exclusive economic zone, thus maximizing its access to natural resources.

Legally, it was based on solid foundations, in line with international conventions and expert recommendations.

 

Caution dictated by the political context

So why was this option not adopted?

The answer lies as much in Lebanon's political complexity as in the regional reality.

First, Lebanon remains a deeply divided state, where every strategic decision must achieve a fragile consensus among political factions, religious communities, and military actors.

Claiming Line 29 would have been perceived as an aggressive move by certain internal parties and could have potentially undermined the already precarious political balance.

The Israeli factor and international pressure

Externally, an ambitious claim would have almost automatically triggered tensions with Israel, which disputes this area.

Lebanese leaders had to weigh up the risk: open conflict could have had dramatic economic and security consequences.

Furthermore, international pressure, particularly from the United States and certain European countries, also pushed Lebanon to adopt a more cautious stance, favoring negotiation over direct confrontation. Strategic calculations

Beyond the fear of conflict, the decision reflects a strategic calculation: Lebanon was not yet ready to fully exploit its gas and oil resources.

Choosing an overly ambitious line would have meant not only diplomatic tensions but also immediate investment to secure and exploit the area, a luxury the country could not afford at the time.

Consequences of this choice

The refusal to adopt Line 29 had direct consequences on Lebanon's potential economy.

Part of its maritime zone, which could have brought in billions in gas and oil revenues, was left untouched.

In addition, this compromise had a domino effect on the delimitation with Cyprus and Israel, indirectly changing the energy and strategic map of the eastern Mediterranean.

In summary, Lebanon had an optimal, legally defensible choice, but political caution, the risk of conflict with Israel, international pressure, and internal complexity led successive leaders to abandon this option.

The history of Line 29 thus illustrates the constant dilemmas between legality, national interest, and political pragmatism in a country where every strategic decision is carefully weighed.

Point 1, currently adopted by Lebanon, was defined by former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in 2007 and has since been confirmed by successive presidents: Michel Sleiman (map of Line 23 sent to the UN), Michel Aoun (signs an agreement with Israel based on Line 23), Joseph Aoun, and Speaker of the House Nabih Berri. 

This official point is no longer located exactly on the Green Line, but slightly offset, which has direct consequences on Lebanese maritime space, particularly with regard to disputed areas with Israel, as well as maritime rights in relation to Cyprus and Syria. 

Because:  

• Moving Point 1 even a short distance along the coastline changes the position of the median lines because the equidistance rule is calculated based on these originals.
• When the median line shifts in favor of the neighbor (Israel, then Cyprus), the lost area is added: a loss to Israel can, depending on the angle/direction, alter the line of intersection with the Cyprus area and further reduce the available Lebanese surface area—hence the domino effect.
• In practice (on the actual map), these losses can amount to hundreds or even thousands of square kilometers depending on the actual geometry of the coastline and the precise location of the base points — hence the major strategic issue.

Thus, understanding the distinction between Point 1 of origin on the continent and Point 1 officially adopted is essential for analyzing the geopolitical and economic issues related to Lebanon's maritime resources.

In 2007, when Lebanon adopted the maritime boundary based on “point 1,” many warned that this was a major technical error.

The Lebanese army and the British company UKHO, which specializes in mapping international maritime boundaries, were among those who raised the alarm.

But between political inertia, diplomatic improvisation, and a lack of will to correct the mistake, this error turned into a geopolitical spiral.

Today, the country finds itself weakened, facing a cascade of claims from its neighbors, which it itself unwittingly triggered.

The first shock came from the map sent to Cyprus: more than 3,000 km² of potentially resource-rich maritime space was conceded without solid justification.

This “unintended gift” immediately set a precedent.

Ankara, on behalf of Northern Cyprus, rushed into the breach, claiming at least an additional 2,000 km², arguing that the Turkish part of the island had no reason to be less favored than the Greek part.

Thus, with a single ill-considered decision, Beirut found itself caught up in a double Cypriot conflict that did not concern it.

Israel, observing this Lebanese laxity, recalculated its own strategy.

If Beirut could concede 3,000 km² to Cyprus, why should it be satisfied with the 1,400 km² already gained thanks to point 1?

Tel Aviv now believes that Lebanon has opened the door to a total renegotiation and could demand even more than what was obtained in 2007.

Syria, in turn, followed the logic of the precedent.

Damascus considers that if Lebanon has offered space to Cyprus and Israel without compensation, there is no reason why it cannot also claim a larger share in the north.

Lebanon thus finds itself surrounded by four neighbors who are using its own mistake as an argument for their claims.

Caught in this spiral, the country is witnessing a continuous erosion of its maritime space.

Each concession, even if involuntary, becomes an argument for the next.

The inability of Lebanese officials to correct the initial mistake transforms a simple technical inaccuracy into a structural crisis.

The paradox is all the more striking given that the justification invoked for years—the need to move quickly to exploit gas and oil—does not hold up in the face of reality on the ground.

TotalEnergies has pointed out that no production is possible for at least six years, which is the time needed to explore, drill, evaluate, and build offshore platforms.

What was supposed to be a race against time is in fact turning out to be a marathon that Lebanon is unable to control.

Added to this is a major political obstacle that few dare to address head-on: the presence of Hezbollah weapons.

Western governments, like Qatar, believe that no large-scale exploitation can begin until the Lebanese state has full authority over its territory and strategic decisions.

In other words, even if Lebanon were to correct point 1 tomorrow, there would be no guarantee of rapid access to its resources.

The result: everything is blocked.

Maritime borders remain disputed, energy opportunities are slipping away, and the mistake in point 1 continues to prevent any way out of the crisis.

By refusing to acknowledge a bad choice, Lebanon has found itself between a rock and a hard place—sliding from a technical misstep into a diplomatic trap from which it now seems unable to extricate itself.

Webography:

Here is a summary of the role of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) in delimiting Lebanon's maritime waters—what it has done, its recommendations, and why this is important for Lebanon today.

Who is the UKHO?

• The UKHO is the British agency responsible for providing marine hydrographic and geospatial data, nautical charts, and services to the navy, shipowners, and maritime states.  Wikipédia+1

• These maps and data are used, among other things, to define coastlines, the baseline from which territorial waters are measured, the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and other maritime rights.  Nations Unies+1

 What the UKHO has done for Lebanon

• In 2009–2010, the UKHO provided nautical charts used as the basis for delineating the southern coast of Lebanon.

The charts concerned were Admiralty chart No. 2634 (Beirut–Gaza) and No. 183 (Ra’s at Tin–Iskenderun).  الجيش اللبناني+2American University of Beirut+2

• At the request of the Lebanese government, the UKHO conducted an  assessment study of the maritime delimitation made in 2009 (in particular the proposed EEZ line).  LCPS+2Ici Beyrouth+2

• In its report, the UKHO proposed two options for Lebanon's southern maritime border. The second — known as “line 29” — would have granted Lebanon approximately 1,430 km² more than the line used until then (the “line 23”).  LCPS+2The National+2

 Why it matters (and why it's controversial)

• Had Line 29 been adopted, it would have given Lebanon a significantly larger maritime zone — which is crucial for its rights to explore offshore resources (gas, oil, etc.).  Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique+2Orient XXI+2

 • But—despite this recommendation—the government never officially submitted line 29 to the United Nations. Instead, in 2011, Lebanon issued a decree (Decree 6433) reiterating line 23 as its official position.  The Policy Initiative+2LCPS+2

 • Some Lebanese experts and military officials believe that this omission deprived the country of hundreds—even thousands—of square kilometers of potential territory, fueling controversy in maritime negotiations with Israel.  Orient XXI+2American University of Beirut+2

 Conclusions & current status

• The UKHO's work provides the technical and cartographic basis on which Lebanon can base its maritime claims.
• However, the extension recommendation (line 29) has never been officially adopted — which has reduced the country's weight in negotiations.
• Today, maritime delimitation remains a strategic issue for the exploitation of Lebanon's offshore resources (gas, oil)—and the UKHO's work remains a frequently cited reference point in debates.

Here is a realistic geographical diagram — based on publicly available maps — illustrating the difference between the “line 29” claim and the line officially adopted for Lebanon's sea/EEZ in relation to Israel (and — relevantly — the area of Cyprus).

What the map shows

 

• The Lebanese coastline in the northeast Mediterranean, with the southwestern point of Ras Naqoura (land border with Israel) as the starting point.

• The officially used maritime boundary—i.e., the “compromise” line between Lebanon and Israel (often referred to as “line 23” in negotiations)—drawn according to the coordinates submitted to the UN in 2010.  timesofisrael.com+2marineregions.org+2

 • The area claimed by Lebanon as “line 29” (or at least a more ambitious line than the official line), as defended by the Lebanese army and studies (notably according to the interpretation of a line more favorable to the Lebanese EEZ).  L’Orient Today+2trt.global+2

• The “lost zone” — that is, the additional maritime area that Lebanon could have claimed (and exploited) if line 29 had been adopted. This zone corresponds to the difference between line 29 and the officially adopted line.  trt.global+2globalsecurity.org+2

• Also, the impact—on the distribution of maritime zones—with regard to Israel and Cyprus, since the Lebanese-Cypriot and Israeli-Cypriot delimitation is influenced by this route.  marineregions.org+2UNDP+2

 Visible data & issues

• The disputed area (or “potentially claimable” in line 29) is estimated—in some analyses—to be approximately ≈1,430 km² larger than the official line.  trt.global+2globalsecurity.org+2

• According to sources, the agreement officially adopted by Lebanon in 2010/2011 (but without final ratification in some cases) started at Ras Naqoura and extended to point 23 (on the map submitted to the UN).  marineregions.org+2marineregions.org+2

 

 • However, this boundary has been contested—Lebanon considers it to be underestimated—particularly with regard to future offshore gas and oil potential (e.g., fields such as Karish, or the zoning claimed as belonging to it).  trt.global+1

 

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : Israel and Lebanon negotiate their maritime border
• Tehran Times : How Nawaf Salam’s cabinet is handing maritime resources to Israel! 
• Al Akhbar : US Grip Threatens to Hand Cyprus 5,000 km² of Lebanon’s Resources 
• NYTimes (2022) : Israeli-Lebanese Maritime Deal Marks a Milestone, With Limitations 

Antarctica’s Treaty in testing times

 Today, we celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty (December 1, 1959), the international agreement that transformed this frozen continent into a sanctuary dedicated to Peace and Science.

No military bases
Global scientific cooperation
Ban on mineral exploitation until 2048 
Major player in climate and ocean regulation.

 

“Antarctica is not a continent for humans, but a continent for the Earth” Jean-Louis Etienne

 

From The Interpreter by Jeffrey McGee, Bruno Arpi and Richard Rowe 

 
In June, Australia and 57 other countries will come together in Milan, Italy for the 47th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. 

This annual meeting of the Antarctic Treaty parties will occur at a time when the “international rules-based order” is under significant threat, via protectionist trade policies and the annexation of territory by conquest.

It is essential that this meeting protects the Antarctic Treaty System as a longstanding and successful example of international rules in action.

Australia has significant national interests in Antarctica.
Australia was one of the 12 founding countries of the Antarctic Treaty 1959, establishing the Antarctic Treaty System which has governed the region over the last six decades.
The Treaty protects Australia’s position regarding its sovereignty claim to more than 42% of the continent.
Australia also benefits strategically from the Treaty stating that “Antarctica shall be used for peaceful purposes only” and there will be a prohibition on nuclear explosions in the region.
The Treaty facilitates scientific cooperation in Antarctica to which Australia contributes.

However, to protect those interests, there are three key geopolitical challenges that Australia will need to take account of in engaging in the upcoming Milan meeting.

Australia should engage with the United States to register the importance, strategically, of continued support for the Antarctic Treaty System especially at this time of global contestability.

Today is Antarctica Day, marking the 1959 signing of the Antarctic Treaty by 12 nations to protect the continent as a natural reserve dedicated solely to peaceful activities.

This chart highlights early navigation details and views of Antarctica. 

 

First, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings have historically been regarded as “exceptional” in the sense that countries have worked hard to keep wider political issues and disagreements from intruding.
However, this exceptionalism fell away during 2022–23 when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was raised directly.
While Russia’s action should rightly be condemned, the tension from this armed conflict is affecting the positions that countries are taking on key issues.
This includes applications by Belarus and Canada to become “Consultative Parties” – i.e. countries able to participate in the decision-making process – at the meeting.

A failure of the Antarctic Treaty meeting to reach consensus on such important issues invites public criticism that it is failing to live up to its decision-making role in governing the Antarctic region.
Building on such criticisms, and with a particular concern about climate change and other environmental impacts, some civil society groups have proposed radically new governance arrangements based on “rights of nature”.
Australia will need to continue supporting the integrity of the Antarctic Treaty System in this new politically charged meeting environment.

 

 

An ATCM Plenary session (J.L.Agraz/ATS Image Bank)

Second, the near future role of the United States in Antarctic affairs is unclear.
The United States has the largest Antarctic science and logistics program and operates three large research stations, including the McMurdo Station in the Ross Sea and Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
However, US commitment to the region appears to be scaling back, with the second Trump administration recently announcing significant funding cuts to US science and logistics, including for the McMurdo Station and the US National Science Foundation programs.

The specific impact of these cuts will become more evident over the next year.
However, this move by the United States may well be viewed by other Antarctic countries as a weakening of its commitment to the Antarctic Treaty System, which dates back to its inception when President Dwight Eisenhower initiated the 1959 “Washington Conference” which formed the Antarctic Treaty.
US influence in Antarctica and at the Consultative Meetings may well diminish over the next four years.

Australia will need to quickly adjust to this new diplomatic reality, as the United States has traditionally been an important partner on Antarctic matters.
Australia should engage with the United States to register the importance, strategically, of continued support for the Antarctic Treaty System especially at this time of global contestability.

Third, China and the Russian Federation are expanding their scientific and logistical footprint in the region.
In 2023 China commenced operation of its fifth research station, the year-round Qinling Station in the Ross Sea area.
China has also filed documents for the Milan meeting detailing plans to construct a sixth Antarctic summer research station at Cox Point in Marie Byrd Land.
The Russian Federation has also announced plans to recommission the Russkaya Station in Marie Byrd Land, which has been dormant since 1990.
It will be operated year-round by the Russian space agency Roscosmos to monitor Russian satellites and spacecraft.
The new Chinese station at Cox Point will be located only a short distance of approximately 17 kilometres from Russkaya.
Marie Byrd Land is also the area of Antarctica in which the United States has a deep historic connection of discovery, mapping, science and operations by the US military.

Together, these announcements by China and Russia may well signal an intention for closer coordination of their scientific and logistics presence in Antarctica.
A closer relationship between China and Russia in Antarctica would also be consistent with strengthening of their wider security and economic relationship.
This is significant for Australia, as China and Russia have a recent record of blocking key decisions on marine spatial protection issues in the Antarctic Treaty meeting and related meetings of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

While these developments are not a direct threat to the Antarctic Treaty, it will be important for Australia and like-minded states to work hard to coordinate actions to build consensus within the Milan Antarctic meeting on key sticking points, such as Consultative Party applications and threatened species protection.
Continuing to strengthen Australia’s scientific and logistical commitments in Antarctica is also vital to maintain a position of influence in the region.

 

Links :

• IFLScience : Who Owns Antarctica? 
• CBC : Antarctica belongs to no one. But many countries are angling for a piece
• BBC : British man who perished in Antarctic glacier found 65 years later 
• GeoGarage blog : The fight to own Antarctica / What are China's long- term Antarctic ambitions? / Westarctica: The micronation with a real-world purpose / Why experts are worried about Russia's oil and gas ... / More than 100000 tourists will head to Antarctica this ... / Antarctica is like no other place on Earth / Climate change: Extremes committee validates Antarctic ...

The final supermoon of 2025 is this week. When to see the Cold Moon

December's full moon will be larger and brighter than your average full moon. NASA

 

From CNET by Joe Hindy

The full moon will be earning its name as temperatures across the US are expected to be lower than average.

Your last chance to see a supermoon in 2025 is approaching quickly.

The full moon is scheduled to appear this week on Thursday, Dec. 4. 

And even if you don't make plans to go out and see it, you'll probably spot it anyway -- it'll be the brightest thing in the night sky.

December's Cold Moon is the third of four consecutive supermoons and the last one of 2025. Supermoons tend to come in packs of four thanks to how the moon orbits the Earth.

The orbit is elliptical, meaning the moon is closer during some months and farther away in others.

When it's close to Earth, it's referred to as perigee, and full moons during perigee are considered supermoons.

The apparent size difference between an average full moon and a supermoon can be subtle, but it's there. NASA

Since it is closer, the moon will be slightly bigger and brighter in the night sky.

According to NASA, a supermoon is 14% larger and 33% brighter than a micro moon, which occurs during full moons when the moon is at its farthest point from Earth, a phenomenon known as apogee.

Thus, it is the best time to view a full moon outside of special events like blood moons or lunar eclipses.

The Farmer's Almanac reports that December's full moon will take place on the evening of Dec. 4.

It'll reach peak illumination at 6:14 p.m. ET.

Thanks to the recent daylight saving time change, it should be dark enough to see for most of the US, but if it isn't, it'll remain full all night.

Those who can't see it due to the weather can see a moon that is more than 90% full from Dec. 2-6.

You won't need any special equipment to see the moon, as it'll be the brightest thing in the night sky by a wide margin.

Those who want to see more detail can certainly use a telescope or binoculars if they choose, which will make the moon's various craters and textures easier to see.

December's full moon is often referred to as the Cold Moon, as it typically occurs when the weather starts to become quite chilly.

The moon is earning its name this time around, as a polar vortex is scheduled to hit the US during Thanksgiving and will stick around for a while afterward.

The polar vortex will drive down temperatures across a lot of the US this week, so if you do go outside, make sure to bundle up. 

 

Links :

• NewScientist : Forming moon may have taken three big impacts early in Earth’s history 

Sea anemone escapes from a starfish

Sea anemone escapes from a starfish

pic.twitter.com/kZwozEiPZ8

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 3, 2025

No diving

Nope. pic.twitter.com/DmCLIbgdbj

— Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) October 27, 2022

The Mary Celeste: 'A curiosity that has never been satisfied'

Mary Celeste in 1861, when she was known as Amazon

From HistoryToday by Rhys Griffiths 

The true story behind the much-mythologised ship and its vanished crew.

In 1884, the ‘phenomenally successful’ literary journal Cornhill Magazine published, anonymously, J.
Habakuk Jephson’s Statement.
Purporting to ‘subjoin a few extracts’ from an article that appeared in the Gibraltar Gazette, it began:
In the month of December in the year 1873, the British ship Dei Gratia steered into Gibraltar, having in tow the derelict brigantine Marie Celeste, which had been picked up in latitude 38 degrees 40', longitude 17 degrees 15' W.
There were several circumstances in connection with the condition and appearance of this abandoned vessel which excited considerable comment at the time, and aroused a curiosity which has never been satisfied.

The Gibraltar Gazette is fictional, Marie a variation on Mary, and the discovery takes place a year late, but otherwise, the above represents a fairly accurate summary of fact: on December 4th, 1872 a small cargo ship carrying 1700 barrels of alcohol bound for Genoa from New York was found by the Dei Gratia adrift in the Atlantic ocean.
As is now well known, the Mary Celeste was completely abandoned.
Speculation as to what happened to its crew has been a renewable source of debate ever since.

From hereon in, however Jephson’s statement on the fate of the ship and its crew enters the realm of fiction and, arguably, has stayed there ever since.
It was the first work to be published in a major publication by Arthur Conan Doyle, most famous as creator of Sherlock Holmes and victim of the Cottingley Fairies hoax.
Most writers could only dream of creating such an legacy with their first notable work.
Conan Doyle’s sensational solution to the mystery (the culprit is a mutilated stowaway on a cutthroat jihad against all white men) captured public attention to such an extent that the British and American governments were prompted to respond with formal denials and official investigations.
In something approaching a self-fullfilling prophecy, the Statement created an interest in the Mary Celeste that has endured, unsatisfied, for well over 100 years becoming a genre in its own right.
Valerie Martin, author of the Mary Celeste’s most recent fictional outing included Conan Doyle as a character in The Ghost of the Mary Celeste (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2014), but lukewarm reviews of the book suggest that while the reading public is drawn to the mystery, they also like a satisfying conclusion.

 

 

Jermoe de Groot, reviewing the book in History Today, described the book as ‘circling around the mystery without seeming to contribute anything purposeful’.
‘I was hoping for a titillating historical-fiction mystery about the real-life vessel Mary Celeste […] What I got was a fragmented and vapid tale about ... well ...
I'm not sure’, complained one reader reviewing the book online.

 

Mary Celeste (often misreported as Marie Celeste) was an American merchant brigantine that was found adrift and deserted in the Atlantic Ocean, off the Azores Islands, on December 4, 1872, by the Canadian brigantine Dei Gratia.
She was in a disheveled but seaworthy condition, under partial sail, with no one on board, and her lifeboat missing.
The last log entry was dated ten days earlier.
She had left New York City for Genoa on November 7, and on discovery was still amply provisioned.
Her cargo of denatured alcohol was intact, and the captain's and crew's personal belongings were undisturbed.
None of those who had been on board—the captain and his wife, their two-year-old daughter, and the crew of seven—were ever seen or heard from again. Mary Celeste was built in Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia and launched under British registration as Amazon, in 1861.
She transferred to American ownership and registration in 1868, when she acquired her new name, and thereafter sailed uneventfully until her 1872 voyage.
At the salvage hearings in Gibraltar following her recovery, the court's officers considered various possibilities of foul play, including mutiny by Mary Celeste's crew, piracy by the Dei Gratia crew or others, and conspiracy to carry out insurance or salvage fraud.
No convincing evidence was found to support these theories, but unresolved suspicions led to a relatively low salvage award. The inconclusive nature of the hearings helped to foster continued speculation as to the nature of the mystery, and the story has repeatedly been complicated by false detail and fantasy.
Hypotheses that have been advanced include the effects on the crew of alcohol fumes rising from the cargo, submarine earthquakes (seaquakes), waterspouts, attacks by giant squid, and paranormal intervention. After the Gibraltar hearings, Mary Celeste continued in service under new owners.
In 1885, her captain deliberately wrecked her off the coast of Haiti, as part of an attempted insurance fraud.
The story of her 1872 abandonment has been recounted and dramatized many times, in documentaries, novels, plays and films, and the name of the ship has become synonymous with unexplained desertion. In 1884, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a short story based on the mystery, but spelled the vessel's name as Marie Celeste.
This spelling has now become more common than the original in everyday use. The keel of the future Mary Celeste was laid in late 1860 at the shipyard of Joshua Dewis in the village of Spencer's Island, on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.
The ship was constructed of locally felled timber, with two masts, and was rigged as a brigantine; she was carvel-built, with the hull planking flush rather than overlapping.
She was launched on May 18, 1861, given the name Amazon, and registered at nearby Parrsboro on June 10, 1861.
Her registration documents described her as 99.3 feet (30.3 m) in length, 25.5 feet (7.8 m) broad, with a depth of 11.7 feet (3.6 m), and of 198.42 gross tonnage.
She was owned by a local consortium of nine people, headed by Dewis; among the co-owners was Robert McLellan, the ship's first captain. For her maiden voyage in June 1861, Amazon sailed to Five Islands to take on a cargo of timber for passage across the Atlantic to London.
After supervising the ship's loading, Captain McLellan fell ill; his condition worsened, and Amazon returned to Spencer's Island where McLellan died on June 19.
John Nutting Parker took over as captain, and resumed the voyage to London, in the course of which Amazon encountered further misadventures.
She collided with fishing equipment in the narrows off Eastport, Maine, and after leaving London ran into and sank a brig in the English Channel.

  

There are some great pieces of mystery fiction set aboard ships.

The ‘framing’ device used by Conan Doyle might put readers in mind of later works like Stefan Zweig’s novellas Chess and Amok, or Bram Stoker’s Dracula where the count arrives at Whitby aboard a ghost ship in a case of reverse colonisation that would send titillating shudders through Victorian England.
 

All the above titles were read voraciously by the reading public, arguably satisfying a hunger fanned by Conan Doyle with his popularisation of the Celeste story years before.
Worth noting, however, is that the impact of Conan Doyle’s story belies the fact that he lived in an age where the day’s biggest authors – HG Wells, Zweig, Robert Louis Stevenson – enjoyed the sort of mass readership that enabled them to shape public belief.
The Celeste myth was a product of a time when literary fiction was at its most powerful: it’s a matter of debate as to whether Conan Doyle’s modern day contemporaries could exert the same influence.

Links :

• Smithsonian Mag : Abandoned Ship: The Mary Celeste 
• CBC : A N.S. ghost ship is fading from memory — 150 years after its crew disappeared
• AccuWeather : Could weather hold the secret to history's greatest ghost ship mystery?
• The Mary Celeste website 
• The Telegraph : On this day in 1872: the Mary Celeste was found adrift in the Atlantic, inexplicably deserted 
• The Guardian : The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin – review
• NYT :  The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin – review
• WP : ‘The Ghost of the Mary Celeste,’ by Valerie Martin 

Correct the map: why the Mercator world map must be put to rest

Historic map and instruments.
Photo: Shutterstock

From Democracy without borders by Olivia Gauvin

When you imagine a world map, what do you see? Is it the expansive oceans, the intricate coastlines, or the seemingly infinite land masses of Russia and Greenland? If you’re like most people, you probably know the Mercator projection — one of the most popular world maps used for educational and commercial purposes.
Though, what most people don’t realize is that this same world map studied in schools and displayed across the globe is startlingly wrong.
Due to the Mercator projection’s distortions, the world map as you imagine it may be entirely mistaken.


In an effort to address these distortions, Africa No Filter and SpeakUpAfrica launched the Correct The Map campaign one year ago to promote the use of a more proportional and equitable world map.
Their campaign calls on international organizations, corporations, and global citizens to retire the Mercator projection due to its misrepresentation of Africa’s true size.
And while such critiques against the Mercator projection have been raised for decades, the Correct The Map petition’s newest endorser is pushing for a change: the African Union.

In August, the AU Commission deputy chairperson Selma Malika Haddadi spoke to Reuters about the pressing need for the globally standardized use of a world map projection that more accurately depicts the African continent.
The African Union, Africa No Filter, and SpeakUpAfrica are thus reviving global awareness surrounding the Mercator projection’s distortions and its global consequences.
By promoting a proposed alternative map — the Equal Earth projection — the Correct The Map campaign is working to transform distorted perceptions of the African continent’s place in the world.

Mapping the distortions

In 1569, a German cartographer by the name of Gerarus Mercator published a ground-breaking world map projection.
The Mercator projection signaled a major breakthrough in nautical navigation because it preserved accurate angles for sailors, despite distorting the relative size of landmasses closer to the poles.
By the early 19th century, after innovations in marine shipping, the map projection swiftly grew in popularity alongside the expansion of global imperialism, trade, and migration.
Ultimately, the Mercator projection became the standard commercial and educational map across the globe, reifying an inaccurate physical image of our world.

 

An example of the Mercator projection, which enlarges regions near the poles.

Image: Wikimedia/Daniel R.
Strebe

For example, the Mercator projection depicts the landmass of Greenland to be relatively equal in size to the African continent, but Africa in reality is 14 times larger.
The Arabian Peninsula, with an area of approximately 3.2 million sq km is depicted as a similar size to Brazil, with 8.36 million sq km.
Land masses which are further from the equator appear especially distorted, therefore having an unintentional proportional ‘shrinking’ effect on Africa and other areas.

Mapping the Earth’s three-dimensional surface onto a two-dimensional page will always include distortions.
A handful of maps have been developed over the years to directly address and correct Mercator’s distortions, such as the Galls-Peters projection and the Robinson projection, both of which also contain some shaping distortions.
However, the Equal Earth projection, published in 2018, successfully depicts “developing countries in the tropics and developed countries in the north with correctly proportioned sizes” in a visually pleasing manner.
This new map, according to the contributing scientists, is both a humanitarian cause and a scientifically well-balanced projection.

An example of the Equal Earth projection which is designed to show landmasses in their true proportions.
Image: Wikimedia/Daniel R. Strebe

In addition to being equal-area throughout, the Equal Earth projection aligns with the mission of international activist networks in promoting greater fairness and integrity in the social sciences across the world.
For example, with over 3,700 signatories on their own website, Correct The Map is petitioning for the United Nations and the BBC to “adopt the Equal Earth projection in their data, reports, and materials that include world maps.” As it stands today, neither organization uses a proscribed map projection.
According to the United Nations’ Geospatial Network, the UN most frequently uses the Robinson projection due to its proportionality and fairness.
The BBC Sound recently produced a podcast episode exploring their corporation’s usage of the Mercator projection.
Further, while endorsing the Equal Earth projection themselves, it’s unclear as to whether the African Union has yet adopted it as their official map projection.

Promoting an Equal Earth

In light of these growing global movements advocating for the distribution and application of the Equal Earth projection, it is necessary to consider how any world map can meaningfully address the bias and exploitation that the African continent has borne.
Nonetheless, there is no question that distorted maps, like the Mercator projection, significantly muddle our capacity for adequately understanding land mass, environmental resources, borders and security, infrastructure, geopolitics and societies — particularly impacting perceptions and biases towards the Global South.

Thus, what is most significant about the mission of the Correct The Map campaign is not merely the corrected distortions, but the broader educational component.
Incorporating the Equal Earth projection into schools and educational initiatives across the world will empower students to finally envision their shared world in its real proportions.
In promoting the use of a more equitable and accurate map projection, the Correct The Map campaign continues to foster global citizenship perspectives and strengthen education worldwide.

For some, the continued use of the Mercator map reinforces the histories and legacies of exploitation and marginalization of the Global South.
By petitioning governing bodies and organizations to adopt the Equal Earth projection, Africa No Filter and SpeakUpAfrica are working together to decolonize the global depiction of physical space.
With the weight of the African Union behind them, the Correct The Map campaign is reigniting an international discussion about our most fundamental perceptions of size and space.

 

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : 
  Mercator projection : the Greenland problem /
  Mechanics of map projections : the myth of Mercator /
  World Mercator projection with true country size added /
  Gerardus Mercator : father of modern mapmaking /
  Advisory notice on "Web Mercator" /
  African Union joins calls to end use of Mercator map that ... /
  First NOAA nautical map in Mercator projection /
  Princeton astrophysicists re-imagine world map, designing ...
  Google Maps now has a "Globe" projection instead of Web ...
  Why your mental map of the world is (probably) wrong /
  Mapping the Oceans /
  Nautical charts - how the most important navigational aid is ... /
  Why maps are civilization's greatest tool /
  Japan's 'Good Design Award' goes to this crazy accurate .../
  These are the cleverest, weirdest mapping ideas ever ... /
  Why modern maps put everyone at the centre of the world /
  These antique maps showed how people saw the world. ... /
  How 16th-century European mapmakers described the ... /
  Nautical chart smarts /
  Bizarre, enormous 16th-century map assembled for first time /
  'The perfect combination of art and science': mourning ...

How secret underwater wiretapping helped end the Cold War

From PopMechanics by Matt Blitz

Secrets haunt the still-classified Operation Ivy Bells, a daring Cold War wiretapping operation conducted 400 feet underwater.

It's the summer of 1972 and the U.S.
is in the middle of pulling off the most daring, covert, and dangerous operation of the Cold War.
Only a few months before, the signing of SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty) limited the number of nuclear missiles of the world's two largest superpowers.
Yet even with this well-publicized US/Soviet détente in place, a submerged American submarine rests mere miles from the Russian coastline.

At the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk, the U.S. nuclear submarine Halibutsilently listens to the secret conversations of the Soviet Union.
With the Kremlin completely unaware, Navy divers emerge from a hidden compartment (referred to as the "Bat Cave") and walk along the bottom of the sea in complete darkness, wiretapping the Soviet's underwater communications line.

America wiretapped this particular Soviet communications cable for maybe a decade or more—and many details remain classified.
It was the U.S.'s most ambitious wiretapping operation, until this point, in its entire history.
This was Operation Ivy Bells.

U.S. Navy / Darryl L. Baker
Shipyard model of the USS Halibut (SSGN-587), Nov.18, 1957.

Battle Plans and Mistresses

Down below the sea surface, the intel is flooding in.
With the divers' taps in place, American communication techs onboard the Halibut gather a wide range of intelligence, from operational tactics to Soviet commanders' conversations with their mistresses.
But up on the sea surface, a storm is brewing.

As the angry sea rocks the sub, the still-working divers are trapped outside the vessel in the murky cold water.
Then, with a loud snap, the steel anchor lines break free.
The Halibut drifts upwards, in danger of exposing itself to the enemy.

"If (they) had gotten caught, [they] had every reason to belief that [the Soviets] would have blown [them] away," says Sherry Sontag, who co-wrote the 1998 book Blind Man's Bluff.

Quickly, Captain John McNish makes a rather unconventional decision: to flood the sub.
In a matter of seconds, the Halibut plops back down into the sea bottom's sandy muck.
The divers scramble back into their decompression chamber (used toprevent the "bends") and an international crisis is averted—at least temporarily.

Days later and after the storm subsides, the Halibut finally emerges from its watery depths.
The mission is a resounding success, and the sub is returning home with tapes of recorded Soviet Union voices discussing the secrets of a superpower.
As W. Craig Reed wrote in his book Red November, it was like the U.S. placing "a glass against the Soviet Union's wall to hear their every word."

Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum
USS Halibut, 1962.

What Lies Beneath

This sub mission was one of several that made up the still-classified Operation Ivy Bells.
It's not exactly a secret that the U.S.
and USSR launched a silent intelligence war, one that lasted for decades and likely continues to this day, even after the fall of the Soviet Union.
What made Operation Ivy Bells so unprecedented is the literal depths to which the U.S.
government would go to spy on its Cold War rival.

According to Sontag's book, it was Captain James Bradley who first considered the possibility of an underwater wiretapping operation.
A World War II and Vietnam War vet who had commanded ships in the heat of the battle, Bradley knew how to operate in close proximity to the enemy.
In 1966, he became the undersea warfare director in the Office of Naval Intelligence, where he came up with the idea that forever shifted the Cold War in America's favor. 

In 1968, Bradley devised and led a mission that sent the Halibut into the Pacific in search of the Soviet sub K-129, lost due to an internal explosion during a routine patrol.
The Soviets' searched for months with little success, but they were missing an invaluable ally that aided the American quest: "the fish."

Built by Westinghouse Electric at an estimated cost of $5 million each, this was a two-ton underwater camera mounted inside a mini-sub, deployed while remaining tethered to the Halibut.
The fish hovered just above the ocean floor taking pictures.
"It was kinda like a sophisticated vacuum cleaner for your pool," Reed told Popular Mechanics.

While the covert mission to dredge up K-129 called Project Azorian was only a partial success, it proved the fish could capture images even in the dark waters of the ocean floor.
But the Halibut and the fish's next mission would be much more complicated—and dangerous.

Bradley believed an unencrypted telephone line connected Petropavlovsk's submarine base (near the tip of Kamchatka peninsula) to Russia's mainland, likely running under the Sea of Okhotsk.
Soviet cryptographers were notoriously backlogged and military officers needed fast communication between the Kremlin and Russia's most important naval base.
So, Bradley theorized, the Soviet's solution was to deposit a communications line so deep underwater and close to Russia's shoreline that no one could access it. 

Or so they thought.

U.S. Navy/Gary Flynn
USS Halibut pushing its nuclear engines.

The Challenges Ahead—and Below

Three obstacles stood in Bradley's way.
First, the search area needed to be significantly narrowed to have any chance of finding the cables in 611,200 square miles of water.
According to legend, the solution came to Bradley one morning in his Pentagon office.
Daydreaming about his boyhood spent on the Mississippi River, Bradley remembered that there were signs near the shorelines warning boaters not to anchor due to utility lines at the bottom of the river.
He realized that if there were location signs like this in America, there surely would be in Russia as well.

He was absolutely right.
When the Halibut moved into the Sea of Okhotsk, they scanned the Siberian coast and found warning signs dotting its northernmost half, telling fisherman to avoid particular areas.

"The Soviets weren't trying to hide (the cables)," says Sontag, 

"They had no idea we could get that close...that we could send divers walking on the bottom that deep...or that we had the technology to tap it. No one had conceived anything like this before."

Within days, the Navy had found what they'd been looking for.
Next, they needed to figure out how divers were going to go and stay that deep underwater for the several hours needed to complete the wiretapping.
The answer was helium.
Since the late 1950s, Navy Captain George F. Bond had been developing new methods, techniques, and gases that would allow divers to go deeper and stay submerged for longer.
While his infamous Sealab project was shut down after the death of a diver, Bond proved that certain gas mixes could work.
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

U.S. Navy/Eric Lippmann
This U.S. Navy diver chiseling free deck plating from the sunken USS Monitor is an example of saturation diving, 2001.

We land mammals breathe in a cocktail of gases every day that is around 80 percent nitrogen and 20 percent oxygen, with a few other garnishes thrown in.
When these gasses are compressed by water pressure, it causes nitrogen to build up in the blood.
This can be an extremely dangerous condition for humans that can result in nitrogen narcosis or decompression sickness, a fatal embolism if the diver does not decompress properly while ascending.
So instead, Ivy Bells substituted nitrogen for helium.
Helium has a lower molecular weight than nitrogen and leaves human tissue more rapidly, making it perfect for a diving technique known as saturation diving.

With the search completed and the human element solved, the last complication involved the mechanics of the tap itself.
To avoid shorting out the cable (and alarming the Soviets), the divers couldn't just open it up.
Instead, the wiretap had to work through induction.
The divers would need to place the tap by wrapping a connector around the comm line and then feed it into a three-foot-long reel-to-reel tape recorder.

"We were using technology that is so far advanced from the civilian community that the public doesn't know that capability even exists."

The big technological problem wasn't pulling the signal out from the cable but separating the channels so someone could understand it.
Running through that one cable was perhaps up to a dozen different lines, all with Soviet voices chattering away.
As Reeds puts it, it was a "gargled cacophony" and nearly impossible to gather any real intelligence.
For this reason, the first mission failed.
"It was trial and error," says Reed, "When they first got the signals in, it was a mess."

But as the mission moved forward, the communication technicians jerry-rigged equipment that separated signals and drew out particular voices.
Exactly what and how they did it remains a mystery as parts of Ivy Bells remains classified.

"These guys were the original makers...
they were making it up as they went along," says Sontag regarding the operation's communication technicians.
"No one else was doing underwater cable tapping. This was all brand new." 

President Jimmy Carter and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign SALT II treaty, June 18, 1979.

40 Years a Secret

Now retired, David LeJeune was a Navy saturation diver who participated in several later missions.
Although he was unable to answer many questions, he says that the information that he and his fellow divers uncovered led to the successful completion of the SALT II talks, which was eventually signed in 1979 and restricted each country's nuclear delivery systems.

LeJeune also says the tech and gear they were using was cutting edge.
"We were using technology that is so far advanced from the civilian community that the public doesn't know that capability even exists."

For a decade, the U.S. wiretapped this comm line at the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk.
The Halibut and other subs would venture into the Sea of Okhotsk a couple of times a year, picking up the tap and replacing it with a new and often more advanced one.
It was an intelligence gold mine, consistently providing the U.S. with invaluable information.

"Finding this information turned out to be the thing that let the Cold War end."

"We didn't know...
how much we were frightening (the Soviets)...
until we listened to these tapes," says Sontag, "Very quickly, we pulled back from the brink.
And this had a lot to do with it....
I think finding this information turned out to be the thing that let the Cold War end."

But in 1980, a former NSA employee named Ronald Peltonwalked into the Soviet Embassy in Washington D.C., and for $35,000, divulged the inner workings of Ivy Bells.
With that, the operation abruptly ended—or so it was claimed.

Over three decades later, this type of wiretapping is thought to be largely obsolete.
Thanks to the digital age, there are far more efficient, easier, and less risky ways to spy on someone's comms.
However, these types of underwater cables still exist and are of great importance.
As the New York Times reported in 2015, there are continued fears that these cables could be cut, effectively halting communications across the globe.

But, even though this type of surveillance may be old fashioned, Reed thinks it's possibly still happening today.
"Submarines absolutely still have the capability to do these kind of missions and there are personnel that are still trained on how to do these missions," says Reed.
"Whether or not those missions are still underway, that would be considered classified."

Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum / Darryl L. Baker
Colors lowered for the last time on the USS Halibut, its mission now complete, June 30, 1976.