J Class Shamrock V sailing in Croatia

The beautiful 1930 sailing yacht Shamrock V in action in the Ionian and Adriatic seas.

Shot and edited by crew member Graham Capell, Co edited by his wife and crew mate Kristin Capell.

http://shamrockv.com

NASA Operation Ice Bridge : High and Low over the Rift

This year Operation IceBridge has returned twice to the Pine Island Glacier, the site of a massive glacial crack poised to potentially create an iceberg the size of New York City.
Operation IceBridge returned to the Pine Island Glacier twice in 2012, and NASA glaciologist Kelly Brunt discusses the implications of the glacier's impending calving event.

PIG Calving Front Free of Sea Ice (acquired October 26, 2012) 
As spring clears out sea ice from Pine Island Bay,
the birth of a massive new iceberg may be more likely.

Crack in the Pine Island Glacier (acquired November 13, 2011)

A Block of Thwaites (acquired October 16, 2012)

From OurAmazingPlanet

With its protective sea ice barrier melted away, Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier grows ever closer to finally dropping its New York City-sized iceberg into the ocean, according to NASA.

The giant crack in Pine Island Glacier was first spotted by scientists with NASA's IceBridge mission in 2011 as they surveyed the massive ice shelf in their specially equipped DC-8 plane.
A second rift also formed and joined the northern side of the crack in May 2012, as captured on satellite images that track the incipient iceberg.

When IceBridge scientists returned this month, they discovered the original rift now has only about half a mile (less than 1 kilometer) to go before the 300-square-mile (770 square kilometers) berg forms.
The calving front of Pine Island Glacier is also free of sea ice, as shown in an Oct. 26 image from the Landsat 7 satellite.
Warm spring temperatures are melting the sea ice that rings the continent during the winter, and winds help push the remaining ice out to sea.
Sea ice acts as a buttress against waves, protecting the front of the glacier from calving, Kelly Brunt, a cryosphere scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a NASA video about the Pine Island Glacier rift.
"So the fact that there's no sea ice in front of the Pine Island Glacier right now implies that it might be in a state that's sort of primed to calve," she said.

Links :

• YouTube :  other parts I / II / / IV 
• GeoGarage blog : Birth of an iceberg

Image of the week : cloud streets over the Hudson Bay

NASA acquired November 13, 2012
>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

On November 13, 2012, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of cloud streets amidst northwesterly winds over Hudson Bay.

Cloud streets—long parallel bands of cumulus clouds—form when cold air blows over warmer waters, while a warmer air layer (or temperature inversion) rests over the top of both.
The comparatively warm water gives up heat and moisture to the cold air above, and columns of heated air called thermals naturally rise through the atmosphere.

The temperature inversion acts like a lid.
When the rising thermals hit it, they roll over and loop back on themselves, creating parallel cylinders of rotating air.
As this happens, the moisture in the warm air cools and condenses into flat-bottomed, fluffy-topped cumulus clouds that line up parallel to the prevailing wind.

Cloud streets can stretch for hundreds of kilometers if the land or water surface underneath is uniform.
Sea surface temperature need to be at least 21°C to 22°C degrees (39°F to 41°F) warmer than the air for cloud streets to form.

South Pacific Sandy Island 'proven not to exist'

 Sandy ghost island with 2008 SHOM nautical map (7321/INT636)

SHOM ENC
overlayed on Google Maps with transparency

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

 From BBC

Sandy island undiscovered

A South Pacific island, shown on marine charts and world maps as well as on Google Earth, does not exist, Australian scientists say.

Google Earth view

but also found in satellite imagery view of Nokia Maps or map view of Bing Maps 
using NASA Blue Marble imagery

The supposedly sizeable strip of land, named Sandy Island on Google Maps, was positioned midway between Australia and French-governed New Caledonia.

Neither the French government - the invisible island would sit within French territorial waters if it existed - nor the ship's nautical charts, which are based on depth measurements, had the island marked on their maps.
>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<< 

 extract of chart 5978 from SHOM (French Hydrographic Office)
no 'île Sable' in 1982 

 Nouvelle Calédonie SHOM ENC official vector chart FR273210 (scale : 1:1,500,000)
(other view with depths in meters)
no 'île Sable' in 2012 update

But when scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they found only the blue ocean of the Coral Sea.

The phantom island has featured in publications for at least a decade.

from Columbia encyclopedia

Scientist Maria Seton, who was on the ship, said that the team was expecting land, not 1,400m (4,620ft) of deep ocean.

"We wanted to check it out because the navigation charts on board the ship showed a water depth of 1,400m in that area - very deep," Dr Seton, from the University of Sydney, told the AFP news agency after the 25-day voyage.

"It's on Google Earth and other maps so we went to check and there was no island. We're really puzzled. It's quite bizarre.

"How did it find its way onto the maps? We just don't know, but we plan to follow up and find out."

Atlas map : Australian, N.Z. ports (British map 1922) 

(David Rumsey Historical Map Collection)
with 'Sandy island' indication

 Soviet Union atlas map (1967)

(David Rumsey collection)
with shoal indication instead of fictional 'Sandy island'

see other ancient maps from Rumsey collection on :
Maps of Sandy Island Through History
the non-existent "Sandy Island" has been drawn (or not) in some maps since the 1770's,
so long before the arrival of satellite imagery

Karte von Australien oder Polynesien, nach den Zeichnungen Reisebeschreibungen und Tagebücher der vorzüglichsten Seefahrer bis 1789 entworffen im Jahr 1792 (Gallica BNF)
(note : the existence of another 'Sandy island' in the North of New Caledonia island) 

NGA chart 56 Great circle sailing chart of the North Pacific Ocean

(edition sept 1973)

with shoal indication instead of fictional 'Sandy island'

 Ocean ArcGIS Basemap (ESRI) and also in Natural Earth II
with 'Sandy island'

New Caledonia and Vanuatu bathymetric and topographic map
with 'Ile de Sable' 
(also in GeoPortail overview)

 C-Map CM93/2 (2009) commercial vector map view on OpenCPN software
with 'Sandy island'

Navionics (2012) commercial vector map online view
with 'Sandy Island'

 Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea bathymetry
in Google Earth (kmz) / e-Atlas
   with 'Sandy island'

Australian newspapers have reported that the invisible island would sit within French territorial waters if it existed - but does not feature on French government maps.

Sandy island from the GSHHS worldwide high-resolution shoreline data set (QGIS view)

Mike Prince, the director of charting services for the Australian Hydrographic Service, a department within the Navy that produces the country’s official nautical charts,
said the world coastline database incorporated individual reports that were sometimes old or contained errors.

 Sandy island in the VMAP-0 vector map file,
available from NGA
next version of widely used Digital Chart of the World (DCW)
also found in weather satellite picture (GOES NOAA)

 Global gravity (kmz) on Google Earth in the area of the supposed 'Sandy island'
(ref : Sandwell, D. T., and W. H. F. Smith,
Global marine gravity from retracked Geosat and ERS-1 altimetry)

Measured and estimated seafloor topography (STRM30+) kmz by Google Earth
(ref : Smith, W. H. F., and D. T. Sandwell, Global seafloor topography
from satellite altimetry and ship depth soundings)
which has been directly used by Google or GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans)

Australia's Hydrographic Service, which produces the country's nautical charts, says its appearance on some scientific maps and Google Earth could just be the result of human error, repeated down the years.

A spokesman from the service told Australian newspapers that while some map makers intentionally include phantom streets to prevent copyright infringements, that was was not usually the case with nautical charts because it would reduce confidence in them.
Mike Prince, the director of charting services for the Australian Hydrographic Service, a department within the Navy, said that while some map-makers added non-existent streets in order to keep tabs on people stealing their data, that was not standard practice with nautical charts.
“[That would] reduce confidence in what is actually correct,” he said.

A spokesman for Google Earth said they consult a variety of authoritative sources when making their maps.

"The world is a constantly changing place, the spokesman told AFP, "and keeping on top of these changes is a never-ending endeavour'.'

 indication of 'Sandy island' (discovered by 'Velocity' whaling ship 1876 -photos-) on : 
Australia Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reefs

shewing the Inner and Outer routes to Torres Strait,

compiled chiefly from the Surveys of Captains Flinders, King, Blackwood, Stanley, Yule & Denham

RN 1802-60 with additions from Admiralty surveys in progress to 1888

Published at the Admiralty Decr. 19th 1860 under the Superintendence of Capt. Washington, R.N., F.R.S. Hydrographer

(see National Library of Australia)

indication of 'Sandy island' on

Neue Karte von Australien / von prof Fr. Behr -J. Maier (Stuttgart)-1888

(BNF Gallica)

not any indication of 'Sandy island' on
Brue, A.H., Levasseur, E. Australie, Nouvelle-Zelande. 1875 World Atlas

David Rumsey collection

Other ancient maps (BNF Gallica) :

• Carte de l'Océanie contenant l'Australie, la Polynésie et les Iles Asiatiques Par J.B. Poirson, Ing. Géog. Revue par A.Toussaint -Vve. Turgis (Paris)-1832
• General-Karte von Australien, Friedrich H. Handtke, 1889

  neither on :

ORSTOM bathymetry map 1979  (other bathy maps 1981 / 1987) 

 neither on Transas map

 neither on :
PlanetObserver Landsat satellite imagery (15m) (IGN GeoPortail view)

neither on :
http://explorateur-carto.georep.nc 
or http://carto.gouv.nc (on Google Earth : kmz)
with bathymetric data from SHOM multibeam echo-sounder surveys in 2008
(IRD 'Alis' ship with Simrad EM1002 and IFREMER 'Atalante' ship with Simrad EM12,
isobaths ZEE NC file -pdf map-
surveys tracks SHOM + IFREMER + IRD)

neither on :
Lansat satellite view on the area (or on Glovis USGS)

The BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Sydney says that while most explorers dream of discovering uncharted territory, the Australian team appears to have done the opposite - and cartographers everywhere are now rushing to un-discover Sandy Island for ever.

Links :

• SydneyMorningHerald :  Where did it go? Scientists 'undiscover' Pacific island
• Wikipedia / Talk
• blog GeoGarage : Lost Islands: the story of Islands that have vanished from nautical charts 

Tropical reefs become biggest US Marine Sanctuary

Map of National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa, America's largest marine sanctuary.

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

From OurAmazingPlanet
 
A pristine tropical reef that has weathered several natural disasters is now part of America's largest marine sanctuary.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) finalized a huge expansion of the Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary in American Samoa last month, from 0.25 square miles (0.65 square kilometers) to 13,523 square miles (33,024 square km).
The boost takes the sanctuary from a single protected coral reef to a marine area larger than the state of Maryland. The agency also renamed the protected region, now calling it the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa.

Five new marine units joined Fagatale Bay's reef: Fogama'a/ Fagalua (Larsen Bay), waters around Swains Island and Muliva, also known as Rose Atoll, and some of the waters around Aunu'u Island and Ta'u Island.

NOAA cited the "tremendous advancement in marine discovery and exploration, marine conservation science, and ecosystem-based management" as factors in its decision to expand the sanctuary.
The decision was published July 26 and finalized Oct. 31 in the Federal Register.
"The Sanctuary contains a unique and vast array of tropical marine organisms, including corals and a diverse tropical reef ecosystem with endangered and threatened species, such as the hawksbill and green sea turtles, and marine mammals like the Pacific bottlenose dolphin," NOAA said in the Federal Register.
Of the five new units, one was already under federal protection.

Rose Atoll was designated a marine national monument in 2009 by President George W. Bush.
It is the world's smallest atoll, and home to American Samoa's largest populations of giant clams, nesting seabirds and rare reef fish.

photo Cristy Weggelaar

Ta'u Island hosts some of the oldest and largest known corals in the world, with one colony measuring 23 feet (7 meters) tall and 135 feet (41 m) in circumference, according to NOAA.
And from June to September, southern humpback whales migrate north from Antarctica to calve in the protected waters surrounding American Samoa.

Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary was established in 1986 in response to a proposal from the American Samoa government.
The impetus was a devastating attack on the region's coral reefs by crown-of-thorns starfish in the late 1970s. Millions of starfish ate their way across the reefs, destroying more than 90 percent of living coral. Hurricanes and coral bleaching have also hit the coral in the last 20 years.