How has the ocean made life on land possible?

Phytoplankton - the foundation of the oceanic food chain. Image courtesy of the NOAA MESA Project. Humans and almost all other animals depend...

Can volcanic eruptions occur underwater?

Volcanoes are common occurrences along the boundaries of Earth’s tectonic plates. These boundaries allow super-heated molten rock called magma, along with ash and gases,...

How does the ocean affect climate and weather on land?

Illustration of major ocean currents throughout the globe. Ocean currents act as conveyer belts of warm and cold water, sending heat toward the...

How does the ocean affect hurricanes?

Hurricane Sandy as seen from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite on October 28, 2012. Image courtesy of NOAA/NASA. In the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific,...

What are seamounts?

The New England seamounts make up the longest seamount chain in the North Atlantic, forming a southeast trending chain of underwater peaks running...

What causes ocean currents?

Currents are cohesive streams of seawater that circulate through the ocean. Some are short-lived and small, while others are vast flows that take...

What are gas hydrates?

An aggregation of methane ice worms inhabiting a white methane hydrate seen in the Gulf of Mexico, 2102. Studies suggest that these worms...

How have animals living only in marine caves adapted?

Ostracods are small, bivalve crustaceans that can inhabit underwater caves. The ostracod genus Spelaeoecia is known only from marine caves and occurs in...

Why is the USS Monitor famous?

A diver swims above the bow of the USS Monitor. Did You Know? During a five-month mission in 2001 involving a partnership between...

What excavation tools do marine archaeologists use?

A team of research divers positions the end of a dredge hose for excavation of a site off Florida’s Gulf Coast during the...

How does NOAA deliver live video feeds from a ship to...

NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer's high-tech control room allows onboard scientists to watch live video from remotely operated vehicles, review mapping and other collected...

What does “CTD” stand for?

A CTD Rosette is lowered into the water to measure the salinity, temperature, depth and concentration of particles in the water column. Image...

How is light distributed in the ocean?

Munidopsis albatrossae, a blind “squat lobster,” lives at depths up to 2,500 meters. Because there is no light at this depth, they would...

How does pressure impact animals in the ocean?

Many deep-sea organisms, such as this escape swimmer Benthothuria, lack lungs or gas-filled spaces that make them more susceptible to the intense pressures...

What are the different types of plate tectonic boundaries?

This image shows the three main types of plate boundaries: divergent, convergent, and transform. Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey. Did...

What is the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite?

A diver makes his way through Deep Blue Cave, Walsingham System, Bermuda. Image courtesy of Jill Heinerth, Bermuda Deep Water Caves 2011 Exploration,...

Are all corals found in warm, shallow water?

In 2012, scientists investigating deepwater canyons off the coasts of Virginia and Maryland discovered, for the first time, Lophelia colonies in the area....

Are glass sponges made of glass?

The primary skeleton of many glass sponges is a network of large spicules that have fused together to form a matrix that defines...

What is a volcanic "hotspot"?

A hotspot is theorized to form as one of Earth's outer tectonic plates moves over an unusually hot part of the Earth's...

Are squat lobsters really lobsters?

Squat lobsters look like lobsters, but they are actually more closely related to hermit crabs. They belong to the phylum Arthropoda. The...