Offshore worker, James Eaton, recorded video from the Lomond Platform The Borgholm Dolphin installation is located 145 miles east of Aberdeen Waves were the result of a severe storm over the North Sea on January 10
It's enough to make you seasick.
As huge waves crashed against a swaying oil rig, one nearby worker managed to catch the entire harrowing ordeal on camera.
The Borgholm Dolphin installation was filmed amidst the massive swells that were a result of this severe storm.
The oil rig is stationed in the North Sea, about 145 miles east of Aberdeen.
Filmed by James Eaton, an offshore worker on the nearby Lomond Platform, the storm began on January 10, but had been known about for some time.
'The barge pulled off of the [The Borgholm Dolphin] due to upcoming weather on January 9,' James told MailOnline in an email.
'But one of our colleagues had to move over there.
'He is usually a bit delicate so we paid extra attention to the storm and how it would affect him.'
The Borgholm Dolphin (left) closed to the Lomond platform (right) in the Everest gasfield
The weather system was so strong that power was cut to approximately 140,000 properties in Northern Scotland at its worst.
'The storm lasted about two days with big seas,' the 48-year-old Control Room Technician, who has worked offshore for nine years, explained.
'It hasn't really left yet, but there were no injuries.
'We get a lot of storms this time of year, but never really have a vessel or a flotel near us to see how bad it is, so it's a bit unusual.'
Built in 1975, the Borgholm Dolphin is a platform that measures 108m × 61m.
A massive structure, it weighs almost 15,000 gross tonnes and is part of the larger Dolphin Drilling fleet, which also includes rigs off the coast of Norway.
Thousands of people gathered at Mont Saint-Michel in northern France on Saturday to watch what is being called "the high tide of the century".
The exceptionally high spring tide, swollen by a "supermoon" effect linked to the solar eclipse on Friday, was predicted to cut off the picturesque island from the mainland with a wall of water as high as a four-storey building.
Friday’s tidal surge was not as high as the 46 feet predicted, and a tiny sliver of causeway no more than a few metres wide resisted the surge of water pushed by the moon's huge gravitational pull on the sea.
However, Saturday's tide on the long, sloping estuary of the River Couesnon could yet go higher, although scientists said low air pressure may have lessened the phenomenon.
As the surge began to make its way along the coast and tidal estuaries surfers took to the water in Pontaubault and waves crashed onto seawalls.
MareeInfo : Tide in Saint Malo today Exceptional High Spring Tide at Saint Malo (height:13.35m 43.8ft), the highest spring tides in Europe The moon acts as a magnet on the oceans. Its force of attractions is twice as strong as that of the sun. The sea advances and retreats twice a day with a time shift of 50 minutes each day. When the moon is above the sea, it attracts the water towards it and so the sea level rises and the tide comes in. Six hours later, the moon is no longer above the sea and the force of attraction disappears. The tide then goes out. The power of the force varies depending on the positions of the sun and moon respectively in relation to the earth. When the three are aligned the attraction is at its peak. This is the time of the high tide : during this period the sea advances and retreats the farthest.
Police had difficulty holding back the 10,000-strong crowd eager to get pictures of the scene in the final minutes before the surge on Friday evening, with the tourist hotspot lit up as night fell with 60 spotlights for the occasion.
Mont Saint-Michel, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979, is situated one kilometre off the coast of Normandy.
The rocky outcrop is home to the famous Norman Benedictine Abbey of St-Michel.
Michael Dodds, the director of the regional tourism committee, said: "This natural phenomenon is an incredible opportunity for tourism in Brittany at this time of year."
Highest tides at Mont Saint-Michel seen by drone from FLY HD. On February 21 the tidal coefficient reached 117. The Mont Saint-Michel 11th century abbey is expected to be entirely surrounded by the English Channel with waters rising by a staggering 14 metres. "The eclipse and the tide are linked" said Kevin Horsburgh, head of the Marine Physics and Ocean Climate research group at Britain's National Oceanography Centre (NOC). "For an eclipse to take place, the sun, the Earth and the moon need to be in a straight line, which is also an essential condition for high tides," he added.
The bay on the coast of Normandy has some of the strongest tides in the world.
Eleven departements along the coast of northern France are on alert for fear of flooding and residents have been told to stay away from beaches and coastal areas.
Similar surges are predicted along the coast of Britain and the Netherlands over the weekend.
The last ‘tide of the century’ was on March 10, 1997 and the next will be on March 3, 2033, making the description something of a misnomer.
The predictions are based on the tide coefficients used by scientists to forecast wave size.
With 120 being the highest, they project a 119 on Saturday.
Until 1879 Mont Saint-Michel was cut off from the mainland during each high tide.
That year a permanent causeway was built to prevent the tide from scouring the silt around the island.
The coastal flats were reclaimed for pastureland, reducing the distance between the shore and the island.
The effect was to encourage the silting-up of the bay.
In 2009 work began on building a hydraulic dam using the waters of the river Couesnon and the tides to help remove the accumulated silt, and make Mont Saint-Michel an island again.
Last year a new 2,500ft bridge was opened to the public.
The bridge allows the waters to flow freely below and around the island at high tide.
Parts of the world will witness a solar eclipse on Friday – a rare
phenomenon in which the sun is completely obscured by the moon.
Here’s
everything you need to know about the background of the solar eclipse,
where to view it and how.
A history of eclipses
Records show that the Babylonians and the ancient Chinese were able
to predict solar eclipses as early as 2500 BC, but it was a phenomenon
that confounded ancient civilisations for centuries.
The Greeks believed that the solar eclipse was a sign that the gods
were angry and death and destruction were on their way.
In fact, eclipse
comes from ekleipsis, an ancient Greek word that means
obscured, or abandoned.
A fragment of a lost poem by Archilochus
(c680–645 BCE) depicted a solar eclipse as such: “Nothing there is beyond hope, nothing that can be sworn impossible, nothing wonderful, since Zeus, father of the Olympians, made night from midday, hiding the light of the shining sun, and sore fear came upon men.”
In ancient China, the eclipse was seen to foretell the future of the
emperor.
More than 4,000 years ago, two Chinese astrologers were executed for failing to predict a solar eclipse.
The Chinese people would get together during an eclipse to bang pots and pans to scare away any demons.
A variety of cultures thought the eclipse was a result of entities
devouring the sun.
In Vietnam, it was thought that a giant frog was
eating it, while the Vikings thought it was the fault of wolves.
Meanwhile, according to ancient Hindu mythology, the eclipse happened
when the deity Rahu was beheaded by the gods for drinking ambrosia.
Rahu’s head was said to have flown into the sky, where it swallowed the
sun.
Prevailing superstitions
Superstitions surrounding solar eclipses still exist today.
Many believe that solar eclipses can be a dangerous to pregnant women and their unborn child – a claim that scientists have debunked.
In parts of India, people fast during a solar eclipse because they
believe that any food cooked during the time will be poisonous, and in
Italy it is believed that flowers planted during a solar eclipse are
more colourful than those planted at other times of the year.
How often does a solar eclipse take place?
A solar eclipse can only happen at new moon, when the moon directly
blocks sight of the sun from certain places in the world.
It can take
place up to five times a year, though according to Nasa, only 25 years
in the past 5,000 have had five solar eclipses.
In the last 500 years there have only been eight total solar eclipses
that could be seen from the UK.
The last one was in 1999, when
thousands of people travelled to Devon and Cornwall to see it.
The UK will not see another eclipse until 2090.
This animation (DailyMail) is designed to appear from the 'point of view' of the
eclipse as it will occur on March 20.
It shows the shadow being cast
over the UK, Greenland, Europe and into Russia
Where can you see it?
The solar eclipse will take place at around 8.45am GMT and is due to
last for a few hours.
Most of it will go unnoticed because its path
falls over the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
It will start in
Greenland and move counterclockwise towards the northeast, passing over
Iceland and the UK.
Phases of the eclipse will be visible from everywhere in Europe,
most of northern Africa, western Asia and parts of the Middle East.
Saint John’s in Newfoundland, Canada, will also see a small bit of the
eclipse at sunrise, but the rest of North America will not be able to
view it.
The sun will be completely blocked out on the Norwegian islands of Svalbard, where some hotels have been booked out for the event since 2008.
One of the best places to view the eclipse will be the Faroe Isles,
200 miles (321km) off the north coast of Scotland, where the moon will
cover about 98% of the sun.
In the UK, the sun will be about 98% covered
on the Isle of Lewis and about 97% on Shetland.
In London, the eclipse will be at its deepest at about 9.30am, in
Manchester at 9.32am and in Edinburgh at 9.35am, though this is subject
to weather conditions.
The eclipse time for cities in Europe is
available on eclipsewise.com, complete with a map of times and locations.
Stay safe when viewing the eclipse
Observers must take care when taking photos of the eclipse on digital
devices, as eye experts have warned that doing so could cause
blindness.
Skygazers have been told to not look directly at the sun when
they take selfies and other photographs, as doing so can lead to burns
at the back of the eye, even with the use of dark sunglasses.
Though looking at the eclipse on a screen is not dangerous in itself,
it might lead to inadvertently looking at it in the process of trying
to capture the perfect shot.
When viewing the eclipse, you can use a homemade pinhole camera and face away from the sun.
Londoners can also go to the Royal observatory in Greenwich from 8am,
where they can join expert astronomers.
Other places setting up special
equipment for viewing include the Flamsteed Astronomy Society, the
Royal Astronomical Society, Baker Street Irregular Astronomers, the
Hampstead Scientific Society and Northolt Branch Astro.
Alternatively, the eclipse can be witnessed from your home, as it
will be broadcast live online through the Slooh Community Observatory’s
website, slooh.com, from 8.30am.
Scientific implications
In 1851, the first photograph of the sun’s corona was taken by the Prussian photographer Berkowski during a solar eclipse.
An eclipse also led to the discovery of helium in 1868 by the French astronomer Pierre Janssen and the British scientist Norman Lockyer, which is why it is named after the Greek word for the sun – helios.
And in 1919, a solar eclipse was used by the British astronomer and mathematician Sir Arthur Eddington to prove Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
For the latest eclipse, hundreds of astronomers are already stationed on Svalbard.
Solar eclipses provide a unique opportunity to study the sun’s atmosphere – the corona – which is much easier to observe with most of the sun’s light blotted out.
One of the biggest mysteries in astronomy is why the corona is so
hot.
While the surface of the sun is only about 6,000C (a few times
hotter than a blast furnace), the corona reaches 1-2mC.
The heat is not
coming from the surface and scientists are working on a plausible
explanation for what causes its astonishing heat.
One explanation is
that twisting magnetic field lines could cause heating, but more
observational evidence is needed.
The Solar Eclipse In Varanasi - Wonders of the Solar System -
Risk of power failure
The UK has 5GW of installed solar capacity, the equivalent of eight
to 10 very large coal power plants.
If skies are clear on Friday
morning, the European grid will suddenly lose all this power.
However,
since the event is known about in advance, electricity grids are
expected to cope well and no power blackouts are expected.
Other celestial events on Friday
In addition to the solar eclipse, Friday is set to see a supermoon
and a spring equinox.
A supermoon refers to the moment the moon orbits
at its closest to the Earth, making it look bigger than it normally
does.
The spring equinox is the time of the year when night and day are
of equal length, mid-way between the longest and shortest days of the
year.
It is a sign that the Earth’s axis is perpendicular to the sun’s
rays.
Some Christian ministers have viewed the rare collision of three celestial events as the beginning of the end of the world.
Links :
WSJ : Solar eclipse coincides with other rare celestial events
British Prime Minister David Cameron's government announced the creation of the world’s largest contiguous ocean reserve on Wednesday, setting aside 322,000 square miles (830,000 square kilometers) around the remote Pitcairn Islands in the South Pacific for special protection.
The new reserve is nearly three and a half times bigger than the
landmass of the United Kingdom—larger than the state of California—and
is home to a stunning array of sharks, fish, corals, and other marine
life, says Enric Sala, a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence who led a five-week Pristine Seas expedition to the island group in March 2012 that helped establish a scientific case for the reserve.
The Titan triggerfish, a voracious predator, being cleaned by a cleaner wrasse. Photograph by Enric Sala, National Geographic
Announced via the government's 2015 budget, the reserve represents a bid by the U.K. to thwart the illegal fishing that threatens the species in its territorial waters.
No fishing or seafloor mining will be allowed in the reserve, except for traditional fishing around the island
of Pitcairn by the local population, says Sala.
The reserve's creation is dependent on partnerships with
non-governmental organizations and satellite monitoring resources,
according to the budget.
Those resources are already in place, says
Sala.
Thirty percent of the U.K.’s waters around the world are now
protected, the highest percentage of any country’s waters on Earth.
Although the new reserve will become the largest single marine protected
area anywhere, the network of reserves
created around the Pacific remote islands by the U.S. in September is
bigger in total, at nearly 490,000 square miles (1,270,000 square
kilometers).
(Learn about how large marine reserves are protected.)
In 2012 National Geographic's Pristine Seas project went on an
expedition to the Pitcairn Islands—a legendary and remote archipelago in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean—and returned with footage of incredible
natural wonders underwater and on land. The expedition led to the
historic announcement that the British government has created the
largest contiguous marine reserve in the world, protecting this
one-of-a-kind ecosystem.
Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve
The Pitcairn Islands are some of the most
remote on Earth.
The surrounding waters contain intact deep-sea
ecosystems, and their coral reefs harbor abundant sharks and large
fishes.
In March 2015 the U.K. government established the area as a
no-take marine reserve—the largest single reserve in the world.
“People know Pitcairn because of the Mutiny on the Bounty, but their real bounty is the rich marine life underwater,” says Sala.
About 60 people live on Pitcairn Island, most of them descendants of
the Bounty mutineers from 1790 and their Tahitian companions.
In
September 2012, in response to the expedition, the Pitcairn Council
voted unanimously to create a marine protected area in their entire
economic zone, which extends 200 miles (322 kilometers) out from their
four islands, three of which are uninhabited. Since the islands are
administered by the U.K. as a territory, the new reserve required the
support of the British government.
“Pitcairn’s waters contain some of the few pristine coral reefs
left on the planet,” says Sala. “They also contain intact seamounts
[submerged mountains] and deep-sea habitats that have not been touched
by trawling and which harbor many species yet to be discovered by
science.”
On the 2012 expedition, Sala and his team discovered several new
species of fish by dropping cameras into deep water. A larger effort is
likely to discover hundreds of new animals there, he says.
“The Pitcairn Islands have some of the cleanest waters in the world,”
Sala says. “And Ducie Atoll is as pristine as it gets,” he added,
referring to the most remote of the islands.
Sala's dive team could see for 250 feet (75 meters) and spied many
sharks and a vast garden of pale blue coral that looked like giant
roses.
Pitcairn’s residents asked the U.K. government to create the reserve to thwart illegal fishing
from foreign fleets, which have been encroaching on their territory. Around the neighboring islands of French Polynesia, many of the sharks
have been fished out. By protecting its natural resources, Pitcairn
islanders also hope to attract higher numbers of tourists. (Learn how drones fight illegal fishing.)
Sala calls Pitcairn “one of the best-kept secrets of the U.K.” To get
there from Washington, D.C., takes five days on boats and airplanes. “That’s longer than it takes to get to the moon, but it was worth the
trip,” he says.
Pristine Seas Project
Completed expeditions (in blue) / Protected areas(in green)
Only about one percent of the world’s ocean is
protected in reserves that ban fishing. “There is an urgent need," Sala
says, "to protect such representative examples of ocean ecosystems.” Links :
BBC : Budget 2015: Pitcairn Islands get huge marine reserve
The Guardian : Pitcairn Islands to get world's largest single marine reserve
The Telegraph : Why will nobody move to Pitcairn, the Pacific island with free land?
The Pew : Pew, National Geographic applaud creation of Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve
NOAA survey ships and the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy are coordinating transits to and from the Arctic, to collect depth measurements along the proposed shipping corridor.
Coordinating with Coast Guard for safe shipping route from Unimark Pass through Bering Strait
As commercial shipping traffic increases in the Arctic,
NOAA is taking major steps to update nautical charts in the region.
NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey will use data collected by two of its own ships, Rainier and Fairweather, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy
and a private sector hydrographic contractor to cover nearly 12,000
nautical miles in the Arctic for use in updating its navigational
charts.
The NOAA-led Arctic marine corridor project will
work with the Coast Guard to asses the safety of a potential Arctic
shipping route from Unimak Island, the largest of the Aleutian Islands,
through the Bering Strait to the Chukchi Sea, as proposed in the USCG Port Access Route Study for the region. The Coast Guard will continue to take public comments prior to making a final decision on the proposed route.
“Much of our charting data in this corridor is from
surveys conducted a hundred years ago,” said Rear Admiral Gerd Glang,
director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey.
“So right now, we need to
conduct reconnaissance of the seafloor in high traffic areas to make
sure they are safe for navigation.”
Over the past several years, Healy has been
collecting multibeam echo sounder depth data while travelling to and
from its Arctic research projects.
NOAA has reviewed the data, archived
at NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center, and has found they are reliable and can support nautical charting.
Last year, Healy worked with Coast Survey to take
depth measurements as “tracklines”-- straight paths of transit -- while
at sea.
The survey is basing its new work on Healy’s 2014 trackline, along with data collected from 16 transits by the three ships and contractor vessel in 2015, using multibeam sonar.
The ships will survey depths in lines that are about a thousand meters
apart and a thousand meters wide, as they travel back and forth to major
project areas around the Bering Strait and the Arctic.
Altogether, the ships will collect about 12,000
nautical miles of data along the four nautical mile wide corridor.
In
addition to measuring depths, they will search for seamounts and other
underwater dangers to navigation.
Although Healy’s primary mission is
not hydrography, Coast Survey can use Healy’s data to identify
significant differences from current nautical charts, and prioritize
future NOAA hydrographic surveying efforts.
Other work planned for this summer includes joint hydrographic surveys by Rainier and Fairweather in the largely uncharted areas of Kotzebue Sound.
In addition, Rainier
will survey off Point Hope, Alaska, to evaluate a potential shoal area
discovered by NOAA cartographers and researchers using commercial
satellite imagery. Fairweather is scheduled to survey Port Clarence, a key Bering Strait location that is of potential interest as an Arctic deepwater port.
NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey, originally formed by
President Thomas Jefferson in 1807, maintains the nation’s nautical
charts, surveys the coastal seafloor, responds to national maritime
emergencies, and searches for underwater obstructions and wreckage.
NOAA ships Fairweather and Rainier
are part of the NOAA fleet of research ships operated, managed, and
maintained by NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, which
includes commissioned officers of the NOAA Corps, one of the seven
uniformed services of the United States, and civilian wage mariners.
