Undersea volcano erupts, stains seas

Earth from Space: Volcanic Canaries (ESA)
(El Hierro island located at the bottom left corner of the picture)

From NationalGeographic

Whitecaps churn in the Atlantic off West Africa as an underwater volcano erupts off Spain's Canary Islands (October 11th).

Satellite image by RapidEye

Since last week, the volcano has been spewing gas and fragments of smoking lava, staining the ocean surface green and brown, as seen above.

Desiree Martin / AFP / Getty Image

Spanish authorities have closed a port on Hierro island, ordered ships away from the island's village of La Restinga, and banned aircraft from flying over the island's southern tip, according to the AFP news service.

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

Six hundred residents living at the port were evacuated.

Desiree Martin / AFP / Getty Image

Erupting lava and gas caused a turquoise stain that spread across the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off Hierro island, as seen in an October 10 satellite image.

Volcanic rock expelled by the volcano creates steam as it rises to the surface off the coast Gobierno DE Canarias / Handout / Reuters

The underwater volcano has been erupting at a depth of about 3,900 feet (1,200 meters).

Gelmert Finol / EPA

The Atlantic turns lime green as lava and gas billow from an underwater volcano off the coast of Hierro island on Monday 17th.

About 10,000 earthquakes have hit Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands, since July 19-a sign of the volcano's rising magma, according to the European Pressphoto news agency.

Links :

• NASA :El Hierro submarine eruption

From the washer to the sea: plastic pollution

Some areas where researchers found significant concentrations of microplastic.

From NYT

When most people think of plastic pollution in the sea, they tend to picture bottles washing up on beaches, say, or the vast garbage patch in the Pacific.

What few may realize is that waste water from washing machines is an important source of plastic pollution in oceans, according to a recent article in Environmental Science and Technology.

Over the last decade, scientists have become increasingly alarmed about a type of pollution that cannot be seen.
Micrometer-size fragments of plastics like acrylic, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyamide and polyester have contaminated the surface waters of the northeast Atlantic as well as shoreline habitats in Britain, Singapore and India, the researchers write.

The scientists said there was evidence that the microplastics are being eaten by animals, who store them in their tissues and cells for months with probably negative consequences for their health and that of the humans who eat marine creatures.

To discover the sources of the microplastics, a team of scientists led by Mark Anthony Browne, a biologist with University College in Dublin, took samples from shore environments on six continents.

Researchers found that the proportions of synthetic fibers in marine sediments were akin to those found in artificial textiles.
Examining washing-machine waste water, they found that 1,900 fibers can rinse off a single garment during a wash cycle and that those fibers look just like the microplastic debris on shorelines.

As the human population increases, they say, the problem is likely grow.
The authors suggest that clothing and washing machine designers need to be aware of the problem and to seek ways to reduce the release of fibers into waste water.

Links :

• ScienceMag : Laundry lint pollutes theworld's oceans
• Discovery : From the wash to the ocean
  

Luminous sand reveals historic record-breaking storm

Frothy water surges on a Netherlands beach.
©Marcel A.J. Bakker, TNO Geological Survey of the Netherlands

From LiveScience

Using the natural luminosity of sand grains, researchers have discovered that a record-breaking flood hit the Dutch coast in either 1775 or 1776.

The finding reveals a new way to look back in time at extreme weather events.
Measurements of floods, storm surges and other phenomena didn't begin in earnest until the late 1800s.
That makes it hard for scientists to track whether weather is becoming more severe, and it also makes it difficult to predict worst-case scenarios for an area.

To go back further in time, researchers at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands examined a layer of beach dune sand exposed by a storm in 2007.
They sampled buried sand grains from the layer and conducted an analysis called optical stimulated luminescence to find out how long ago the sand had been laid down.

Optical stimulated luminescence takes advantage of the fact that low levels of background radiation are everywhere.
Sediment absorbs this radiation, but when sand is exposed to the sun, that radiation "leaks" out, resetting the radiation level to zero.
Using a special light wavelength, researchers can stimulate similar radiation "leaks" in the lab, measuring how much radiation comes out of the sand grains over time.
The result is a measurement of how long it's been since the sediment last saw sunlight.

By measuring the sand's luminescence and comparing it to written records of large storms, the researchers were able to pin the sand deposit down to a storm in 1775 or 1776, an era of increased storminess in that part of Europe. [Hurricanes from Above: See Nature's Biggest Storms]

A devastating flood in the Netherlands in 1953, caused by storm surge.

The 1700s storm was a record-breaker: It dwarfed the largest flood on record in the Netherlands, the researchers report in the November issue of the journal Geology.
That flood took place in the winter of 1953, caused by an 18.4-foot (5.6-meter) storm surge in the North Sea.
Nearly 2,000 people died in the Netherlands, and several hundred more drowned in England and Belgium, because of that storm.

The find is no guarantee that another giant storm surge is due, but it does reveal the potential for disaster in low-lying coastal areas of Europe.
The researchers hope to use the sand technique to understand storm surge risks across coastal regions.

Links :

• Deltawerken : the flood of 1953
  

Water slo-mo shot around Cronulla in Sydney

PHANTOM WATER EDIT from Chris Bryan

Lone explorer braves the ocean in just a kayak to capture up-close footage of 200-ton blue whales at play

From DailyMail

They are the largest animals to have ever lived on Earth and can cause serious injury with a mere flip of their tail.
But one man braved the Pacific Ocean in just a kayak to capture these rare images of blue whales at play.
Rick Coleman posted a video of his sea voyage off the coast of Redondo Beach, California, on YouTube to give viewers a glimpse of the 100 feet, 200 ton mammals up close.

He even got out of his relatively small vessel to film the huge beasts underwater, using his GoPro1080 camera.
In a video shot a week earlier and also posted on YouTube, Mr Coleman catches a blue whale emitting a spectacular vertical spout of water while coming to the surface to breath.
The spouts can reach up to 39 feet high.

Of his October 9 experience, Mr Coleman said on the site: 'A whale lunge feeding right next to the Kayak, plus some underwater footage.
'While the lunge feed was heart pounding excitement, I found that seeing one underwater was relaxing and peaceful. Was an awesome day!'
He also cautioned against anyone trying a similar thing.

'I'd like to take a moment to state that I don't recommend, endorse or in any way want to encourage anyone to try and swim with these whales,' he wrote.
'The whales are large unpredictable animals and potentially dangerous. I’ve talked to the NOAA and would like to share these Whale Watching Guidelines from the NOAA site'
Mr Coleman said that the whales have been swimming approximately three to five miles out from the King Harbor port, and that there is a small dock for launching kayaks by hand.
Of his October 1 trip, Mr Coleman wrote: 'One Blue Whale obscured my lens with some whale spit. Another popped up much closer than expected and I had to hit the brakes.
It was absolutely incredible to be in the presence of such a remarkable animal.
The Blue Whale is the largest creature to ever inhabit planet earth.'

Kayaker Alan Brady is surprised by two breaching humpback whales off the coast of Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz, California
Photograph: Paul Schraub/AP

According the National Geographic, blue whale tongues alone 'can weigh as much as an elephant. Their hearts, as much as an automobile.'
There are only between 10,000 and 25,000 blue whales still swimming the world's oceans after aggressive hunting in the 1900s by whalers seeking whale oil drove them to the brink of extinction.
They have been on the endangered species list since the 1960s but have managed only a minor recovery since then.

Links :

• DailyMail : Flipping heck! 50ft-long humpback whales rear up from the sea yards from unsuspecting paddle boarders
• YouTube : Blue whale meets paddleboarder head on during Dana Point whale watching trip