It's what Bill Patzert, a climatologist and oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, likes to call a "La Nada" -- that puzzling period between cycles of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean when sea surface heights in the equatorial Pacific are near average....

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The first scientific results from an ambitious voyage led by a group of graduate students from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego offer a stark view of human pollution and its infiltration of an area of the ocean that has been labeled as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."...

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New samples of rock and sediment from the depths of the eastern Pacific Ocean may help explain the cause of large, destructive earthquakes similar to the Tohoku Earthquake that struck Japan in mid-March. Nearly 1,500 meters (almost one mile) of core collected from the ocean floor near the coast of Costa Rica reveal detailed records of approximately two million years of tectonic activity along a seismic plate boundary....

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Scientists and drillers recovered a remarkable suite of heat-tempered basalts that provide a detailed picture of the rarely seen boundary between magma and seawater. These samples were collected during a return to ODP Hole 1256D, one of the deepest "hard rock" penetration sites of scientific ocean drilling. ODP Hole 1256D has been stabilized, cleared to its full depth, and primed for further deepening....

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Many animals have eyes that are incredibly complex – others manage without. Researchers have now shown that sea urchins see with their entire body despite having no eyes at all....

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A study of kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) in the arctic region provides the first data on the migratory patterns of this seabird species and analyses its capacity to respond to environmental changes. The kittiwake is one of the most emblematic marine species of the arctic area, and evidence suggests that rising temperatures at the north pole over the coming decades will have a dramatic impact on populations of this bird....

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Worldwide, 2010 was one of the two warmest years on record, according to a new report by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The peer-reviewed report, compiled by 368 scientists from 45 countries, provides a detailed, yearly update on global climate indicators, notable climate events and other climate information from every continent....

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At the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), a 1,700-acre tidal salt marsh inland of Monterey, California, kismet recently came calling in the form of a $4.5 million grant from NOAA through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grant made possible the recent construction of an experimental underwater retaining wall, called a “sill,” that’s designed to slow the fast tidal currents that are stripping a portion of the estuary of its mud bottom in a process known as tidal scour.

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Meet Keith Davis, NOS Help Desk specialist.

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Scientists have developed and successfully carried out a novel, extraordinary technique for learning how efficiently river channels cut and increase local topographic relief: They have used the exposure of "clinker" deposits in combination with highly refined dating techniques....

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