Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia

A giant blob of water the size of the Arctic Ocean has been discovered hundreds of miles beneath eastern Asia, scientists report.
Researchers found the underground "ocean" while scanning seismic waves as they passed through Earth's interior. But nobody will be exploring this sea by submarine. The water is locked in moisture-containing rocks 400 to 800 miles (700 to 1,400 kilometers) beneath the surface.
"I've gotten all sorts of emails asking if this is the water that burst out in Noah's flood," said the leader of the research team, Michael Wysession of Washington University in St. Louis.
"It isn't an ocean. [The water] is a very low percentage [of the rock], probably less than 0.1 percent."
Given the region's size, however, that's enough to add up to a vast amount of water.
Earthquakes Reveal "Ocean"
Wysession and former graduate student Jesse Lawrence discovered the damp spot by observing how seismic waves from distant earthquakes pass through Earth's mantle.
The wet zone, which runs from Indonesia to the northern tip of Russia, showed up as an area of relatively weak rock, causing the seismic waves to lose strength much more rapidly than elsewhere. The water got there by the process of plate tectonics, in which sections of the Earth's crust shift. This process caused the ocean bottom to be pulled beneath continental plates all around the Pacific Rim.
Normally, Earth's internal heat bakes the water out of the rocks before it gets more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) deep. The water then escapes upward as volcanic gas.
But along the eastern Pacific Rim, conditions allow the rock to be drawn much deeper before the moisture is cooked out.

Read More >http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070227-ocean-asia_2.html

Research Team Uses Satellite for the First Time to Track Earth's 'History of Water'

Boulder, Colorado (Feb 2, 2007 15:55 EST) For the first time, scientists have used a spaceborne instrument to track the origin and movements of water vapor throughout Earth's atmosphere, providing a new perspective on the dominant role Earth's water cycle plays in weather and climate.
A team of scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer on NASA's Aura satellite to gather data on "heavy" and "light" water vapor in order to retrace the history of water over oceans and continents, from ice and liquid to vapor and back again. The researchers were able to distinguish between the two because heavy water vapor molecules have more neutrons than lighter ones do.
By analyzing the distribution of the heavy and light molecules, the team was able to deduce the sources and processes that cycle water, the most abundant greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere, said David Noone of CU-Boulder's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Noone, an assistant professor in CU-Boulder's atmospheric and oceanic sciences department, is the corresponding author of a paper on the subject that appears in the Feb. 1 issue of Nature.

Read More>http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=45398610027

Rare "Prehistoric" Shark Photographed Alive

Flaring the gills that give the species its name, a frilled shark swims at Japan's Awashima Marine Park on Sunday, January 21, 2007. Sightings of living frilled sharks are rare, because the fish generally remain thousands of feet beneath the water's surface.Spotted by a fisher on January 21, this 5.3-foot (160-centimeter) shark was transferred to the marine park, where it was placed in a seawater pool."We think it may have come to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," a park official told the Reuters news service. But the truth may never be known, since the "living fossil" died hours after it was caught.

This serpentine specimen may look like a large eel, but its six slitlike gills help mark it as a cousin of the great white, the hammerhead, and other sharks. But this isn't your average fish.Believed to have changed little since prehistoric times, the frilled shark is linked to long-extinct species by its slinky shape and by an upper jaw that is part of its skull. Most living sharks have hinged top jaws.

With a mouthful of three-pointed teeth, the frilled shark may be a fearsome hunter, but it's considered harmless to humans. Those needle-like choppers are better suited to fleshier forms found in the deep sea, such as squid and other sharks.

Right now it's known as a "living fossil." But the frilled shark may be on its way to joining its ancestors.Often accidentally caught and killed in trawlers' nets in Japanese waters, frilled sharks are known to turn up in fertilizer or animal food and occasionally on dinner plates. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists the species as near threatened, meaning it "is close to qualifying for or is likely to qualify for a threatened category in the near future."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/photogalleries/frilled-shark/photo4.html

Feds Given C-minus In Ocean Conservation

The United States government made progress last year in advancing the cause of healthier oceans -- but not much.
The 2006 Ocean Policy Report Card, issued Tuesday by the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, gave the federal government a grade of C-minus, up marginally from a D-plus for 2005.
The initiative, a combined effort by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and the Pew Oceans Commission, is led by retired Adm. James D. Watkins and Leon Panetta, former Central Coast congressman and Clinton administration chief of staff. Its mission is to evaluate progress toward protecting marine resources.
"To raise the grade in 2007, we need much more progress from Congress and the administration," said Panetta.
The C-minus was arrived at by averaging grades in six component subjects: C-minus for national ocean governance; A-minus for state governance; D-minus for international leadership; D-plus for research and science efforts; B-plus for fisheries management; and F for new funding.
In addressing funding and research, Watkins highlighted the need to investigate the ocean's role in climate change.
"We are trying to fight climate change with one arm tied behind our back," he said.
The report said the U.S. scored poorly in international leadership because of the failure of the previous Republican-controlled Senate to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In the category of fisheries management, the U.S. earned a B-plus for setting a firm deadline to end overfishing with the passage of the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act.
The A-minus awarded for state governance was the highest mark, with the California Ocean Protection Council getting special mention.
"In the race to preserve our oceans, the states are outdistancing the federal government," said Panetta.
"The states are making the grade, and California is at the head of the class," said Karen Garrison of the Natural Resources Defense Council. With the passage of Proposition 84 in 2006, a bond act that provides support for protection of coastal resources, California stands as a role model for the rest of the nation, she said.
Julie Packard, executive director of Monterey Bay Aquarium, applauded California for meeting the Pew Ocean Commission's concerns.
"It's time for the federal government to do the same," she said. "Our oceans are too precious to delay action any longer."
Packard praised Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"His administration has made significant progress toward assuring a future with healthy oceans by supporting creation of a network of marine protected areas off the Central Coast," she said.
In a public hearing Friday at the Best Western Beach Resort, the Fish and Game Commission will finalize plans for the marine protected areas.
"No other state has a full, comprehensive network like California does," said Tim Eichenberg, pacific director of Ocean Conservancy, an ocean advocacy group.
"It is important for people in the Central Coast to show their support," he said. "People should come to the hearing on Friday in Monterey and speak up on behalf of the oceans before the Fish and Game Commission."
The report card gave credit to President Bush for designating the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, a 140,000-square-mile reserve of protected islands, atolls and ocean.
To address the need for more federal action, Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, recently introduced H.R. 21, known as Oceans-21, which would establish an Oceans Trust Fund and a framework for regional oceans governance.
"Our oceans are at our mercy," he said.

By Brian Lee

Hearld Staff Writer

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/16594957.htm