In a cold, dark ocean, life thrives near hydrothermal vents. Ralph White/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Ralph White/Getty Images How did life start on Earth? The answer is a big scientific mystery scientists are actively investigating. After talking with many scientists, host Regina G. Barber found that an abundance of water on Earth is most likely key, in some …
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Facebook Tweet Email Link Marine researchers exploring extreme depths say they have discovered an astonishing deep-sea ecosystem of chemosynthetic life that’s fueled by gases escaping from fractures in the ocean bed. The expedition revealed methane-producing microbes and marine invertebrates that make their home in unforgiving conditions where the sun’s rays don’t reach, according to a new study. Geochemist Mengran Du …
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Tropical Storm Erin forms in eastern Atlantic CBS News Miami meteorologist analyzes Tropical Storm Erin’s projected path 04:18 Tropical Storm Erin formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean on Monday, forecasters said. The storm could strengthen to become the Atlantic’s first hurricane of the season. The storm formed just west of the Cabo Verde islands off the western coast of Africa, …
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In a groundbreaking study, a team of geoscientists, including Dr. Uisdean Nicholson and Dr. Débora Duarte, has uncovered a significant clue about the formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Their research, revealed through seismic profiles and deep-sea core samples, traces the opening of the Equatorial Atlantic Gateway back to 117 million years ago, shifting previous geological timelines. This discovery challenges prior …
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The Atlantic Ocean did not spring into existence in a sudden tectonic snap; its earliest pulse can now be traced through a set of one-kilometer-long mud waves lying more than 3,000 feet below today’s seafloor some 250 miles west of Guinea-Bissau. New seismic profiles and cores date these colossal ripples to roughly 117 million years old, which shifts the birth …
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Two NASA astronauts, a Japanese flier and a Russian cosmonaut plunged back to Earth on Saturday, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, west of San Diego, to wrap up a five-month mission to space. Strapped into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance, commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Kirill Peskov gently splashed down at 11:33 …
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A fascinating study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals a groundbreaking discovery about the feeding behavior of sea spiders in methane-rich ecosystems off the coast of Southern California. Marine biologist Shana Goffredi and her team have uncovered a new survival strategy that enables these tiny, translucent arachnids, identified as Sericosura, to thrive in one of …
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A dull stretch of silty seafloor off Southern California hides a surprise that would fit on a pencil eraser. Here, three new sea spiders in the genus Sericosura have learned to live on the greenhouse gas methane, thanks to a cloak of bacteria that carpets their limbs. The work comes from marine biologist Shana Goffredi at Occidental College, whose team …
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The discovery of Mobula yarae, the third manta ray species, has been officially confirmed after 15 years of research and observation, marking a monumental moment for marine biology and conservation. Initially predicted in 2009 by Dr. Andrea Marshall, co-founder of the Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF), this new species was suspected to inhabit the Atlantic Ocean, joining the already recognized Giant …
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Microscopic grains of alien dust buried in the sediment at the bottom of the ocean could be evidence of a comet that exploded in Earth’s atmosphere 12,800 years ago. This hypothetical event, known as the Younger Dryas impact, was invoked to explain a sudden, 1,200-year period of rapid cooling to near-glacial conditions during a time when Earth’s climate was on …
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