Deepwater Horizon, Two Years On
What are the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, two years on? For the families of the 11 people who were killed, of course, their tragedy means life will never be the same. What have been the environmental and economic effects of the oil spill? It’s been bad news for the deep-water coral communities 1.2 km beneath the Gulf’s surface. Corals were found with brown flocculent material and...
European Maritime Day 2012
Since the declaration in Strasbourg in 2008, every 20th May Europe comes together to celebrate the Maritime Day. The aim is to make people reflect on the importance of the sea in many aspects of our everyday life – whether for leisure, work, economy or transport. A large conference for stakeholders is organized every year, and in 2012 this honour is given to Sweden – where the event will be held in the...
The Titanic sailed 100 years ago
The RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton on her maiden voyage 100 years ago,on 10th April 1912 (http://www.rmstitanic.net/). Just five days later it famously hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and sank, never reaching the destination of New York.RMS Titanic was the largest floating man-made object at that time and was carrying 2,224 people. Only 710 survived the disaster. There have been...
Can Real-Time Sea Floor Observations Alert Us To Earthquakes?
Subduction zones are described as the movement of the earth’s plates. When these collide the cold crust sinks and the other plate overlaps on top of it. For Geologists this simplified explanation is not enough; they suspect that the plates become locked together and later on after centuries spring back and create an earthquake.
Calypso is watching
In Greek mythology, Calypso was the daughter of the titan Atlas (also known as Oceanus) and was a nymph living on the magical island of Ogygna. As referred to by Homer in ‘The Odyssey’, she seduced and imprisoned Odysseus on his journey home from the Trojan War, and promised him immortality if he would sojourn permanently with her in the cave. Some people are convinced...
JERICO - Putting Coastal Observatories One Step Ahead
JERICO is the result of the collaboration of twenty seven partners coming from seventeen European countries. JERICO is an FP7 project that takes advantage of the different backgrounds of the partners involved, who are contributing their invaluable and diverse experience and expertise when it comes to coastal observations that derive from the technology used for data collection though results and...