News by Subject Earth Science

In findings published in the Journal of the Royal Society Open Science, researchers have detailed the discovery of a tactile-sensory system stowed within the suction disc of remora, believed to enable the fish to acutely sense contact pressure with host surfaces and gauge ocean forces in order to determine when to initiate their attachment, as well as adjust their hold on hosts while traversing long distances.

Japanese researchers used a Global Navigation Satellite System-Acoustic ranging combination technique to detect signals due to slow slip events in the Nankai Trough with seafloor deformations of 5 cm or more and durations on the order of one year. These events generally occurred on the shallow sides of regions with strong interplate coupling and represent variations in interplate friction conditions, which may help simulate the occurrence of megathrust earthquakes originating from this subduction zone and contribute earthquake disaster prevention.

Cardiff University scientists have shed new light on the Earth's climate behavior during the last known period of global warming over 14 million years ago.

Microplastics (plastic particles under 5 mm) are an abundant type of debris found in salt and freshwater environments. In a Limnology & Oceanography Letters study, researchers demonstrated the transfer of microplastics through the food chain between microscopic prey and larval fish that live in coastal ecosystems.

The increased freshwater from melting Antarctic ice sheets plus increased wind has reduced the amount of oxygen in the Southern Ocean and made it more acidic and warmer, according to new research led by University of Arizona geoscientists.

Tiny bits of DNA collected from waters off the West Coast allowed scientists to identify more species of marine vertebrates than traditional surveys with trawl nets. They also reflect environmental shifts such as unusual ocean temperatures that affect the organisms present, new research shows.