Waves

The power of waves is one of the most significant forces of coastal change. Waves are
created by frictional drag as the wind blows over the surface of the ocean. We often
think of the air as being weightless and 'nothing' but in fact it has real power, as you
discover when you try to walk into a gale! The same forces you experience when you
walk into the wind are applied to the surface of the sea as the air is moved across it.
Friction is created at the boundary between the air and water, pushing water in the
direction of the wind. This creates a swell and a wave is created. Energy from the wind
begins to rotate the water, turning it in a forward moving circle. In this way the wave can
move forward and will continue doing so until it either reaches an obstacle, like land, or
it runs out of energy, eg: the wind stops.

The two main factors that determine the size and power of a wave are the strength of
the wind and the distance over which it blows. A strong wind blowing over hundreds of
miles of ocean will create a more powerful wave than a weak wind blowing for just a few
miles. The uninterrupted distance over which the wind can blow is called the fetch.

Waves are classified into two groups: destructive or constructive.

Destructive waves are more powerful and cause erosion, whereas constructive waves
are less violent and encourage deposition.

Destructive waves are formed by strong winds with large fetch areas. These waves
have high energy levels that have been built up by travelling long distances and being
exposed to strong winds. When they reach land they tend to break strongly and remove
material from the shoreline. The swash is not as strong as the backwash so the overall
effect is to erode beach material. You will see destructive waves if you visit the coast
during or shortly after a storm. The swash of the wave tends to push material up the
shore and the backwash tends to wash it back again. If there are a lot of waves they
catch up with eachother on the beach and the backwash of one wave will tend to meet
the swash of the next wave. This will limit the motion of the water up the beach and pull
some material back out to sea. Less material will be pushed up the beach. The
backwash will be the most powerful process and there will be a net loss of material from
the beach. Typically between 11 and 15 destructive waves will break every minute.
Constructive waves predominate in calmer weather conditions when less energy is
being transfered to the water. They are less powerful than destructive waves and don't
break as violently. Constructive waves will sometimes not seem to break atall but just
run up the beach losing energy as they do so. The swash is more powerful than the
backwash, so more material is carried up the beach than is pulled back down it. This
leads to an increase in beach sediments. If there are not many waves each wave will be
able to complete both its swash and backwash without interference from the next wave
coming up the beach. Sediment that has been pushed up the beach by the swash will
be deposited up shore, and the backwash will drain away into the sand. When the next
wave breaks its swash will deposit more material without it being 'captured' by the
backwash of the preceding wave. Typically, between 6 and 9 constructive waves will
break every minute.

Swash: When a wave breaks and the water travels up the beach this is called the
swash. Swash pushes sediment up the beach away from the sea.

Backwash: When the water from the waves starts to run back down the beach it is
called the backwash. Backwash pulls beach material towards the sea.

Click here to watch a short video clip of backwash disrupting swash. (1.4MB avi format)

Remember...

CONSTRUCTIVE - swash is stronger than the backwash - DEPOSITION

DESTRUCTIVE - backwash is stronger than the swash - EROSION

 Destructive waves
are associated with
stormy conditions
and occur where
there is a long
fetch and strong
winds. The waves
in the picture were
breaking at a
frequency of 14
per minute, each
swash being
interrupted by the
powerful backwash
of the previous
d

wave.

When a destructive
wave hits a cliff the
water can hit the
rock face with the
same sort of force
as driving a car
into a brick wall at
30mph. The same
power that can
smash ships to
pieces against the
rocks is constantly
eroding the cliff
face.

d
Tiny pockets of air,
trapped in the
cracks and hollows
 of the cliff's
surface, undergo
immense
compression as
the waves hit ,
forcing the air into
the rock surface
and creating 'mini
explosions' that
weaken the rock.

Constructive
waves are
associated with
calm weather.
These waves were
hardly breaking at
all, but it was clear
that small particles
were being pushed
up the beach.
Some lateral
movement was
also taking place
(longshore drift) ,
material being
moved from the
background to the
foreground. The
d
frequency of these
waves was 6 per
minute.
Sea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This article is about the body of water covering most of the Earth. For other uses, see Sea
(disambiguation).

The sea at La Jolla, California in the Gulf of Santa Catalina

Seas have always been essential for human development and trade, as at Singapore with its harbour
(the world's busiest transshipment port) and the important shipping lanes through the Singapore Strait
and the Strait of Malacca.
The sea is the connected body of salt water that covers over 70 percent of the Earth's surface.
The sea is important in moderating the Earth's climate, in providing food and oxygen, in its
enormous diversity of life, and for transport. The study of the sea is called oceanography. The
sea has been travelled and explored since ancient times, but its scientific study dates broadly
from the voyages of Captain James Cook to explore the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and 1779.

Seawater is characteristically salty. The main solid in solution is sodium chloride, but the water
also contains chlorides of potassium and magnesium, alongside many other chemical elements,
in a composition that hardly varies across the world's oceans. However, the salinity varies
widely, being lower near the surface and near the mouths of large rivers and higher in the cold
depths of the ocean. The sea surface is subject to waves caused by winds. Waves decelerate and
increase in height as they approach land and enter shallow water, becoming tall and unstable, and
breaking into foam on the shore. Tsunamis are caused by submarine earthquakes or landslides
and may be barely noticeable out at sea but can be violently destructive on shore. Winds create
currents through friction, setting up slow but stable circulations of water throughout the sea. The
directions of the circulation are governed by several factors including the shapes of the
continents and the rotation of the earth. Complex deep-sea currents known as the global
conveyor belt carry cold water from near the poles to every ocean. Large-scale movement of
seawater is caused also by the tide, the twice-daily rhythm of the gravitational pull exerted by the
Moon, and to a lesser extent by the Sun, on the Earth. Tides may have a very high range in bays
or estuaries such as the Bay of Fundy, where tidal flows are funnelled into narrow channels.

All the major groups of living organisms are found in the sea including bacteria, protists, algae,
plants, fungi and animals. It is widely regarded to be the place where life started, as well as
where many of the major groups of organisms evolved. The sea contains a wide range of habitats
and ecosystems, ranging vertically from the sunlit surface waters and the shoreline to the
enormous depths and pressures of the cold, dark abyssal zone, and in latitude from the waters
under the Arctic ice to the colourful diversity of coral reefs in tropical regions.

The sea provides substantial supplies of food, mainly fish, but also shellfish, marine mammals
and seaweed, to people around the world. Some of these are caught by fishermen and others
farmed in underwater operations. Other human uses of the sea include trade, travel, leisure
activities such as swimming, sailing and scuba diving, mineral extraction, power generation and
warfare. Many of these activities create marine pollution. The sea is important in human culture,
with major appearances in literature at least since Homer's Odyssey, in marine art, in cinema, in
theatre and in classical music. Symbolically, the sea appears as monsters such as Scylla in
mythology and represents the collective unconscious in some forms of psychotherapy.

Contents
[hide]

1 Overview
2 Seawater
3 Waves
o 3.1 Tsunami
 4 Currents
5 Tides
6 Life in the sea
o 6.1 Marine habitats
o 6.2 Primary producers
o 6.3 Animals
7 Humans and the sea
o 7.1 History
7.1.1 Navigation
7.1.2 Origins of oceanography
o 7.2 Exploitation
7.2.1 Trade
7.2.2 Food production
7.2.3 Leisure
7.2.4 Power generation
7.2.5 Extractive industries
7.2.6 Naval warfare
7.2.7 Marine pollution
o 7.3 In culture
7.3.1 In literature
7.3.2 In art
7.3.3 In cinema and theatre
7.3.4 In classical music
7.3.5 In symbolism: mythology and psychotherapy
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 Sources
12 External links

Overview[edit]

Katsushika Hokusai's Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa, c. 1830

The sea covers more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface with liquid water.[1] Seen from space,
our planet appears as a "blue marble" of various forms of water: salty oceans, sea ice, clouds.[2]
The science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once suggested that "Earth" should have been named
"Ocean" as the sea is its dominant feature.[1]

The sea is from one point of view the World Ocean, the interconnected system of all the Earth's
oceanic waters.[3] About 97.2 percent of the Earth's water is found in the sea, some 326 million
cubic miles (1360 million cubic kilometres) of salty water.[4] Of the rest, 2.15 percent is
accounted for by ice in glaciers, surface deposits and sea ice, and 0.65 percent is in the form of
vapour or liquid fresh water in lakes, rivers, the ground and air.[4]

The word "sea" can also be used for specific, much smaller bodies of water, such as the North
Sea or the Red Sea. There is no sharp distinction between seas and oceans, though generally seas
are smaller, and are often partly (as marginal seas) or wholly (as inland seas) bordered by land.[5]
However, the Sargasso Sea has no coastline and lies within a circular current, the North Atlantic
Gyre. It is a distinctive body of water with brown Sargassum seaweed and calm blue water, very
different from the rest of the Atlantic Ocean.[6][7] Seas are generally larger than lakes and contain
salt water rather than freshwater, but some geographic entities known as "seas" are enclosed
inland bodies of water that are not salty: for instance, the Sea of Galilee is a freshwater lake.[7][a]
The Law of the Sea states that all of the ocean is "sea".[11][12][13][b]

"Freedom of the seas" is a principle in international law dating from the seventeenth century. It
stresses freedom to navigate the oceans and disapproves of war fought in international waters.[15]
Today, this concept is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which
came into force in 1994. Article 87(1) states: "The high seas are open to all states, whether
coastal or land-locked." Article 87(1) (a) to (f) gives a non-exhaustive list of freedoms including
navigation, overflight, the laying of submarine cables, building artificial islands, fishing and
scientific research. Territorial waters extend to 12 nautical miles (22 kilometres; 14 miles) from
the coastline and in these waters, the coastal state is free to set laws, regulate use and exploit any
resource.[15]

Seawater[edit]
Main article: Seawater

Salinity map taken from the Aquarius Spacecraft. The rainbow colours represent salinity levels: red = 40
ppt, violet = 30 ppt
A characteristic of seawater is that it is salty. Salinity is usually measured in parts per thousand
(ppt), and the open ocean has about 35 grams (1.2 oz) solids per litre, a salinity of 35 ppt. The
Mediterranean Sea is slightly higher at 37 ppt, and the Dead Sea has as much as 300 grams
(11 oz) dissolved solids per litre (300 ppt). Although sodium chloride is the main salt present,
constituting about 85 percent of the solids in solution, there are also 5 grams (0.18 oz) per litre of
the chlorides of other metals such as potassium and magnesium and 3 grams (0.11 oz) of
sulphates, carbonates, bromides and other salts. A kilogram (2.2 lb) of salt can thus be found in
28 litres or one cubic foot of typical ocean water. Despite variations in the levels of salinity in
different seas, the relative composition of the dissolved salts is stable throughout the world's
oceans.[16]

The circumstances that cause the salinity of a body of water to vary include evaporation from its
surface (increased by high temperatures, wind and wave motion), precipitation on its surface, the
freezing or melting of sea ice, the melting of glaciers, the influx of fresh river water, and the
mixing of bodies of water of different salinities. The Baltic Sea, for example, is in a cool climatic
region with low evaporation, and has many rivers flowing into it and intermittent replenishment
from the open ocean. The occasional influx of water from the North Sea creates a cold, dense
under layer that hardly mixes with the surface layers. The uppermost layer may have a salinity of
10 to 15 ppt, with even lower levels in the estuaries.[17] The Red Sea experiences high
atmospheric temperatures causing high evaporation but little precipitation; few rivers flow into
it, and the Bab-el-Mandeb, joining it to the Gulf of Aden, is narrow. The Red Sea's salinity
averages 40 ppt.[18]

The temperature of the sea is dependent on the amount of solar radiation falling on the surface.
In the tropics, with the sun nearly overhead, the temperature of the surface layers can rise to over
30 C (86 F) while near the poles the temperature in equilibrium with the sea ice is about 2 C
(28 F). Cold water is denser than warm water and tends to sink. There is a continuous
circulation of water in the oceans. Warm surface currents cool as they move away from the
tropics, and the water becomes denser and sinks. The cold water moves back towards the equator
as a deep sea current, driven by changes in the temperature and density of the water, before
eventually welling up again towards the surface. Deep seawater has a temperature between 2 C
(28 F) and 5 C (41 F) in all parts of the globe.[19]

Blue ascidians, brightly coloured sponges, marine invertebrates and algae in New Zealand
Seawater has a freezing point of about 1.8 C (28.8 F). When its temperature becomes low
enough, ice crystals form on the surface. These break into small pieces and coalesce into flat
discs that form a thick suspension known as frazil. In calm conditions this freezes into a thin flat
sheet known as nilas, which thickens as new ice forms on its underside. In more turbulent seas,
frazil crystals join together into flat discs known as pancakes. These slide under each other and
coalesce to form floes. In the process of freezing, salt water and air are trapped in the interstices
between the ice crystals. Nilas may have a salinity of 1215 ppt, but by the time the sea ice is
one year old, this falls to 46 ppt. The air remains and may support an ice ecosystem which
includes viruses, bacteria, protozoa, algae and fungi.[20]

The amount of oxygen found in seawater depends primarily on the plants growing in it. These
are mainly algae, including phytoplankton, but also include some vascular plants such as
seagrasses. In daylight the photosynthetic activity of these plants produces oxygen, which
dissolves in the seawater where it is used by marine animals. At night, photosynthesis stops, and
the amount of dissolved oxygen declines. In the deep sea, where insufficient light penetrates for
plants to grow, there is very little dissolved oxygen. In its absence, organic material is broken
down by anaerobic bacteria producing hydrogen sulphide.[21]

Seawater is slightly alkaline and during historic times has had a pH of about 8.2. More recently,
increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have resulted in more of it dissolving in
the ocean forming carbonic acid and have lowered this pH level to 8.1. The pH is expected to
reach 7.7 by the year 2100, an increase of 320 percent in acidity in a century.[22] One important
element for the formation of skeletal material in marine animals is calcium, but this is easily
precipitated out in the form of calcium carbonate as the sea becomes more acidic.[23] This is
likely to have profound effects on certain planktonic marine organisms because their ability to
form shells will be reduced. These include snail-like molluscs known as pteropods, single-celled
algae called coccolithophorids and foraminifera.[22] All of these are important parts of the food
chain and a diminution in their numbers will have significant consequences.[22] In tropical
regions, corals are likely to be severely affected by a lack of calcium and this will adversely
impact other reef dwellers.[22]

The amount of light that penetrates the sea depends on the angle of the sun, the weather
conditions and the turbidity of the water. Much light gets reflected at the surface, and red light
gets absorbed in the top few metres. Yellow and green light reach greater depths, and blue and
violet light may penetrate as deep as 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) under ideal conditions. There is
insufficient light for photosynthesis and plant growth beyond a depth of about 200 metres
(660 ft).[24] The Blue Grotto at Capri demonstrates this absorption of short wave light. As it
passes through the water, red light is selectively absorbed, leaving the cavern bathed in a blue
glow emanating from the large underwater entrance.[24]

Waves[edit]
Movement of molecules as waves pass

When the wave enters shallow water, it slows down and its amplitude (height) increases.

Wind blowing over the surface of a body of water forms waves. The friction between air and
water caused by a gentle breeze on a pond causes ripples to form. A strong blow over the ocean
causes larger waves as the moving air pushes against the raised ridges of water. The waves reach
their maximum height when the rate at which they travel nearly matches the speed of the wind.
The waves form at right angles to the direction from which the wind blows. In open water, if the
wind continues to blow, as happens in the Roaring Forties in the southern hemisphere, long,
organised masses of water called swell roll across the ocean. If the wind dies down, the wave
formation is reduced, but already-formed waves continue to travel in their original direction until
they meet land. Small waves form in small areas of water with islands and other land masses, but
large waves form in open stretches of sea where the wind blows steadily and strongly. When
waves meet other waves coming from different directions, interference between the two can
produce broken, irregular seas.[25][26]

The top of a wave is known as the crest, the lowest point between waves is the trough and the
distance between the crests is the wavelength. The wave is pushed across the surface of the sea
by the wind, but this represents a transfer of energy and not a horizontal movement of water.
When a wave approaches, the water molecules at a point rise up and when it retreats, they go
down, moving in a roughly circular pattern each time a wave passes. Those near the surface
make a larger movement than those lower down, and deep molecules are completely unaffected
by the passage of a wave. A floating object rises up and down as a wave passes but is not moved
along by the wave (only by the wind). When waves approach land and move into shallow water,
they change their behaviour. If approaching at an angle, the waves may bend or wrap around
objects such as rocks or headlands. When the deepest circling molecules in a wave come into
contact with the seabed, friction between the water and the beach slow the wave down and the
crests become closer together. The height of the wave increases as the energy in it is unable to
move downwards and is forced upwards instead. The wave changes profile as the crest moves
faster than the base. Eventually, the wave "breaks" as it topples forward and is converted into a
tumbling mass of foamy water. This rushes in a sheet up the beach before retreating back into the
sea under the influence of gravity.[25]

Tsunami[edit]

The 2004 tsunami in Thailand

A tsunami is a very unusual form of wave and is caused by a geological event such as an
underwater earthquake or landslide, a meteorite impact, a volcanic eruption or a collapse of land
into the sea. This trigger event temporarily lifts the surface of the water, usually by a few feet
(one meter). The potential energy of the raised sea above the site is turned into kinetic energy,
creating a shallow wave, known as a tsunami, radiating outwards at a speed proportional to the
square of the sea depth. A trigger event on the continental shelf may cause a local tsunami on the
land side and a distant tsunami that travels out across the ocean.[27] Normal surface waves are up
to 45 feet (14 metres) high, have a wavelength of a few hundred feet (one hundred meters) and
travel at up to 65 miles per hour (105 km/h). Tsunami have a wavelength of 80 to 300 miles (130
to 480 km) and travel about ten times faster. In the open sea they may pass unnoticed as their
height at this stage is usually less than three feet; it is as they enter shallower water that their
dimensions change.[27]

As a tsunami approaches the coast and the water becomes shallower, the wave is compressed and
its speed decreases to below 80 miles per hour (130 km/h). Its wavelength diminishes to less than
twelve miles, and its amplitude increases enormously. Its behaviour is similar to a wind-
generated wave, but the scale is vastly different and involves not just the surface layers of the sea
but the whole water column. The water in front of the wave may be sucked back and added into
the crest, leaving the seabed close to the shore exposed. The wave begins to tower in the same
way as a normal wave but on a vastly greater scale. It does not usually break but instead rushes
inland, engulfing all in its path. Much of the destruction wreaked may be caused by the water
draining back into the sea after the wave has struck, dragging debris and people with it. Often
several tsunami are caused by a single geological event and arrive at intervals of somewhere
between eight minutes and two hours. The first wave to arrive on shore may not be the biggest or
most destructive.[27]

Currents[edit]

Surface currents: red-warm, blue-cold

Wind blowing over the surface of the sea causes friction at the interface between air and sea. Not
only does this cause waves to form but it also makes the surface of the water move. Although
winds are variable, in any one place they predominantly blow from a single direction and thus a
surface current can be formed. Westerly winds are most frequent in the mid-latitudes while
easterlies dominate the tropics.[28] When water moves in this way, other water flows in to fill the
gap and a circular movement of surface currents known as a gyre is formed. There are five main
gyres in the world's oceans: two in the Pacific, two in the Atlantic and one in the Indian Ocean.
Other smaller gyres are found in lesser seas and a single gyre flows around Antarctica. These
gyres have followed the same routes for millennia, guided by the topography of the land, the
wind direction and the Coriolis effect. The surface currents flow in a clockwise direction in the
Northern Hemisphere and anticlockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. The water moving away
from the equator is warm, and that flowing in the reverse direction has lost most of its heat.
These currents tend to moderate the Earth's climate, cooling the equatorial region and warming
regions at higher latitudes.[29]

The global conveyor belt

Surface currents only affect the top few hundred metres (yards) of the sea, but there are also
large-scale flows in the ocean depths caused by the movement of deep water masses. A main
deep ocean current flows through all the world's oceans and is known as the thermohaline
circulation or global conveyor belt. This movement is slow and is driven by differences in
density of the water caused by variations in salinity and temperature.[30] At high latitudes the
water is chilled by the low atmospheric temperature and becomes saltier as sea ice crystallizes
out. Both these factors make it denser, and the water sinks. From the deep sea near Greenland,
such water flows southwards between the continental landmasses on either side of the Atlantic.
When it reaches the Antarctic, it is joined by further masses of cold, sinking water and flows
eastwards. It then splits into two streams that move northwards into the Indian and Pacific
Oceans. Here it is gradually warmed, becomes less dense, rises towards the surface and loops
back on itself. Some flows back into the Atlantic. It takes a thousand years for this circulation
pattern to be completed.[29]

Besides gyres, there are temporary surface currents that occur under specific conditions. When
waves meet a shore at an angle, a longshore current is created as water is pushed along parallel to
the coastline. The water swirls up onto the beach at right angles to the approaching waves but
drains away straight down the slope under the effect of gravity. The larger the breaking waves,
the longer the beach and the more oblique the wave approach, the stronger is the longshore
current.[31] These currents can shift great volumes of sand or pebbles, create spits and make
beaches disappear and water channels silt up.[29] A rip current can occur when water piles up
near the shore from advancing waves and is funnelled out to sea through a channel in the seabed.
It may occur at a gap in a sandbar or near a man-made structure such as a groyne. These strong
currents can have a velocity of 3 ft (0.9 m) per second, can form at different places at different
stages of the tide and can carry away unwary bathers.[32] Temporary upwelling currents occur
when the wind pushes water away from the land and deeper water rises to replace it. This cold
water is often rich in nutrients and creates blooms of phytoplankton and a great increase in the
productivity of the sea.[29]

Tides[edit]
Main article: tide

High tides (blue) at the nearest and furthest points of the Earth from the Moon
Tides are the regular rise and fall in water level experienced by seas and oceans in response to
the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun and the effects of the Earth's rotation. During each
tidal cycle, at any given place the water rises to a maximum height known as "high tide" before
ebbing away again to the minimum "low tide" level. As the water recedes, it uncovers more and
more of the foreshore, also known as the intertidal zone. The difference in height between the
high tide and low tide is known as the tidal range.[33]

Satellite image of the Euripus Strait between Boeotia (left) and the island of Euboea at Chalkis, Greece,
where the tidal currents reverse four to twelve times a day

Most places experience two high tides each day, occurring at intervals of about 12 hours and 25
minutes. This is half the 24 hours and 50 minutes that the Moon takes to make a complete
rotation of the Earth and return to the same position in the sky. The Moon is 27 million times
smaller than the Sun, but it is 400 times closer to the Earth. This means that its gravitational pull
at the Earth's surface is more than twice as great as that of the Sun.[34] The tidal force caused by
the Moon draws the sea towards it while inertial forces act to keep the water in place. The
gravitational force is stronger so a bulge forms in the ocean at the place where the Earth and
Moon are at their closest. On the opposite side of the globe, the lunar force is at its weakest and
the inertial force is stronger than the gravitational pull and this causes another bulge to form. As
the Moon rotates around the Earth, so do these ocean bulges move around the globe. The
gravitational force of the Sun is also working on the seas. It is less powerful than that of the
Moon, and when the Sun, Moon and Earth are all aligned (full moon and new moon), their
combined gravitational pulls results in abnormally high "spring tides". When the Sun is at 90
from the Moon as viewed from Earth, it counteracts the pull of the Moon and the tidal range is
smaller, causing "neap tides" to occur.[33]

In places like the Gulf of Mexico where land constrains the movement of the bulges, only one set
of tides may occur each day. Inshore from an island there may be a complex daily cycle with
four high tides. The island straits at Chalkis on Euboea experience strong currents which
abruptly switch direction, generally four times per day but up to 12 times per day when the moon
and the sun are 90 degrees apart.[35][36] Where there is a funnel-shaped bay or estuary, the tidal
range can be magnified. The Bay of Fundy is the classic example of this and can experience
spring tides of 15 m (49 ft). Although tides are regular and predictable, the height of high tides
can be lowered by offshore winds and raised by onshore winds. The high pressure at the centre
of an anticyclones pushes down on the water and is associated with abnormally low tides while
low-pressure areas may cause extremely high tides.[33] A storm surge can occur when high winds
pile water up against the coast in a shallow area and this, coupled with a low pressure system,
can raise the surface of the sea at high tide dramatically. In 1900, Galveston, Texas experienced
a 15 ft (5 m) surge during a hurricane that overwhelmed the city, killing over 3,500 people and
destroying 3,636 homes.[37]

Life in the sea[edit]

Marine habitats

Coral reefs are among the most biodiverse habitats in the

world.

Littoral zone
Intertidal zone
Estuaries
Kelp forests
Coral reefs
Ocean banks
Continental shelf
Neritic zone
Straits
Pelagic zone
Oceanic zone
 Seamounts
Hydrothermal vents
Cold seeps
Demersal zone
Benthic zone

v
t
e

Main article: Marine biology

A large proportion of all life on Earth exists in the oceans, which provide about 300 times as
much habitable volume as terrestrial habitats. Marine habitats range from surface water to the
deepest oceanic trenches, including coral reefs, kelp forests, seagrass meadows, tidepools,
muddy, sandy and rocky bottoms, and the open pelagic zone. The organisms living in the sea
range from microscopic phytoplankton and zooplankton to whales up to 30 metres (100 ft) long.
Marine life is economically important to humans, especially the fish used for food, and provides
support for the carbon cycle.[38][39]

Life probably originated in the sea, given that all living things are made mainly of water, and all
the major groups of animals are represented in the sea. Scientists differ on which part of the sea
gave rise to life: the Miller-Urey experiments suggested a dilute chemical "soup" in open water,
but more recent suggestions include volcanic hot springs, fine-grained clay sediments, or deep-
sea "black smoker" vents, all of which would have provided protection from damaging
ultraviolet radiation, not blocked by the early earth's atmosphere.[40]

Marine habitats[edit]

Main article: Marine habitats

Marine habitats can be divided (horizontally) into coastal and open ocean habitats. Coastal
habitats extend from the shoreline to the edge of the continental shelf. Most marine life is found
in coastal habitats, even though the shelf area occupies only seven percent of the total ocean area.
Open ocean habitats are found in the deep ocean beyond the edge of the continental shelf.
Alternatively, marine habitats can be divided (vertically) into pelagic (open water), demersal
(just above the seabed) and benthic (sea bottom) habitats. A third division is by latitude: from
polar seas with ice shelves, sea ice and icebergs, to temperate and tropical waters.[39][41]

Coral reefs, the so-called "rainforests of the sea", occupy less than 0.1 percent of the world's
ocean surface, yet their ecosystems include 25 percent of all marine species.[42] The best-known
are tropical coral reefs such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef, but cold water reefs harbour a wide
array of species including corals (only six of which contribute to reef formation).[43][44]
Primary producers[edit]

Diatoms are microscopic algae that form a large part of the phytoplankton.

Marine primary producers plants and microscopic organisms in the plankton are
widespread and very diverse. Microscopic photosynthetic algae, phytoplankton, contribute a
larger proportion of the world's photosynthetic output than all the terrestrial forests combined.
About 45 percent of the sea's primary production of living material is contributed by diatoms.[45]
Much larger algae, commonly known as seaweeds, are important locally; Sargassum forms
drifts, while kelp form kelp forests.[39] Flowering plants in the form of seagrasses grow in
"meadows" in sandy shallows, [46] mangroves line the coast in tropical and subtropical regions[47]
and salt-tolerant plants thrive in regularly inundated salt marshes.[48] All of these habitats are able
to sequester large quantities of carbon and support a biodiverse range of larger and smaller
animal life.[49]

Light is only able to penetrate the top 200 metres (660 ft) so this is the only part of the sea where
plants can grow.[24] Productivity is not necessarily higher in warmer waters; it is instead
controlled mainly by upwelling of cold but mineral-rich waters and near rivers which bring
nutrients leached from the soil, so the most productive zones, rich in plankton and so also in fish,
are mainly coastal.[50]

Animals[edit]

There is a broader spectrum of higher animal taxa in the sea than on land, many marine species
have yet to be discovered and the number known to science is expanding annually.[51] Some
vertebrates such as seabirds, seals and turtles return to the land to breed but fish, cetaceans and
sea snakes have a completely aquatic lifestyle and many invertebrate phyla are entirely marine.
In fact, the oceans teem with life and provide many varying microhabitats.[51] One of these is the
surface film which, even though tossed about by the movement of waves, provides a rich
environment and is home to bacteria, fungi, microalgae, protozoa, fish eggs and various
larvae.[52]

The pelagic zone between the surface of the water and the seabed contains myriad zooplankton
drifting with the currents. Most of these tiny organisms are the larvae of fish and marine
invertebrates, the result of the liberation of eggs in vast numbers because the chance of any one
embryo surviving to maturity is so minute.[53] The zooplankton feed on phytoplankton and on
each other and form a basic part of the complex food chain that extends through variously sized
fish and other nektonic organisms to large squid, sharks, porpoises, dolphins and whales.[54]
Some marine creatures make large migrations, either to other regions of the ocean on a seasonal
basis or vertical migrations daily, often ascending to feed at night and descending to safety by
day.[55]

The seabed provides a range of habitats on or under the surface of the substrate that have been
exploited by creatures adapted to these conditions. The tidal zone with its periodic exposure to
the dehydrating air is home to barnacles, molluscs and crustaceans. The neritic zone has many
organisms that need light to flourish. Here, among algal encrusted rocks live sponges,
echinoderms, polychaete worms, sea anemones and other invertebrates. Corals often contain
photosynthetic symbionts and live in shallow waters where light penetrates. The extensive
calcareous skeletons they extrude build up into coral reefs which engineer the seabed. These
provide a biodiverse habitat for reef dwelling organisms. There is less sea life on the floor of
deeper seas but marine life also flourishes around seamounts that rise from the depths, where fish
and other sea life congregate to spawn and feed. Close to the seabed live demersal fish that feed
largely on pelagic organisms or benthic invertebrates.[56] Exploration of the deep by submersibles
revealed a new world of creatures living on the seabed that scientists had not previously known
to exist. Some like the detrivores rely on organic material falling to the ocean floor. Others
cluster round deep sea vents where mineral-rich flows of water emerge from the seabed. A dead
whale sinking to the seabed provides food for an assembly of organisms relying largely on the
actions of sulphur-reducing chemoautotrophic bacteria. These carcases provide conditions very
similar to hydrothermal vents. Such places support unique biomes and many new microbes and
other lifeforms have been discovered at these locations.[57]

Humans and the sea[edit]

History[edit]

Navigation[edit]

Main articles: History of navigation, History of cartography, Maritime history, and Ancient maritime
history

Humans have navigated the seas since antiquity. The Ancient Egyptians and Phoenicians
navigated the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, while the Egyptian Hannu sailed along the
Red Sea, reaching the Arabian Peninsula and the African Coast around 2750 BC.[58] In the 1st
millennium BC, Phoenicians and Greeks established colonies throughout the Mediterranean and
the Black Sea.[59] The seas along the eastern and southern Asian coast were used by the Arabs,
Chinese and Pacific islanders for navigation.[60] The Polynesians were experts at navigation,
passing their knowledge on verbally from generation to generation. In their timber boats lashed
together with braided fibres, they travelled thousands of miles between tiny islands using the
stars, the direction of swells and other signs to find their way.[61]
In the early Mediaeval period, the Vikings in their longships navigated the North Atlantic from
Scandinavia as far north and west as Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland, and as far south as
the Mediterranean. It is possible they reached the Indian Ocean, rounding the Cape of Good
Hope, but they made little contact with the Arab navigators.[62]

The Eurocentric view: on 12 October 1492, the Italian Christopher Columbus discovers The Americas for
the king of Spain.

Starting in the fifteenth century, Western European mariners made voyages of exploration in
search of trade. Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1487. Vasco de Gama
reached India via the Cape in 1498. Christopher Columbus sailed from Cadiz in 1492 to reach
the Eastern lands (of India or Japan) by going westwards around the world, making landfall
instead on an island in the Caribbean Sea. The English navigator John Cabot reached
Newfoundland in 1497, again hoping to reach the profitable East. The Italian Amerigo Vespucci
reached South America in voyages between 1497 and 1502, sailing south to the mouth of the
River Amazon; the Americas were named after him.[62]

The Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to sail around the world.
He started in 1519, reaching the Straits of Magellan in 1520 having lost two of his five ships, and
crossing the Pacific, nearly starving, reaching Guam in March 1521. Magellan was killed soon
afterwards; only one of his ships, under Sebastian del Cano, returned safely to Seville in
September 1522.[62]
Gerardus Mercator's 1569 world map. The coastline of the old world is quite accurately depicted, unlike
that of the Americas. Regions in high latitudes (Arctic, Antarctic) are greatly enlarged on this projection.

In 1594 the Dutch captain Willem Barents sailed beyond Norway to Svalbard and the Barents
Sea. Gerardus Mercator made a practical map of the world, using the projection named after him
that conveniently makes navigation rhumb lines straight. However, effective navigation opened
the seas to piracy and war. Skilled mariners such as the Englishman Francis Drake and the
Spanish conquistadors were rewarded by their home countries for successful and often violent
exploitation. Far from discovering empty lands, they subjugated and looted the peoples whose
lands they found.[62] Accurate charting of the coasts of Russia only began in the 18th century,
and Severnaya Zemlya was not discovered until 1910.[63]

By no means all medieval navigators were from Western Europe. Novgorodians sailed the White
Sea since at least the 13th century.[64] The Chinese Ming Dynasty had a fleet of 317 ships with
37,000 men under Zheng He in the early fifteenth century, sailing the Indian and Pacific
Oceans.[62]

Origins of oceanography[edit]

Main article: Oceanography

Scientific oceanography began with the three voyages of Captain James Cook from 1768 to
1779, exploring, charting and describing the South Pacific with unprecedented precision from 71
degrees South to 71 degrees North.[65] John Harrison's chronometers supported Cook's accurate
navigation and charting on two of these voyages, permanently improving the standard attainable
for subsequent work.[65] Other expeditions followed in the nineteenth century, from Russia,
France, the Netherlands and the United States as well as Britain.[66] On HMS Beagle, which
provided Charles Darwin with ideas and materials for his 1859 book On the Origin of Species,
the ship's captain, Robert FitzRoy, charted the seas and coasts and published his four-volume
report of the ship's three voyages in 1839.[66] Edward Forbes's 1854 book, Distribution of Marine
Life, had a wide influence on research on the world's seas, though he argued that no life could
exist below around 600 metres (2000 feet). In this, Forbes was proven wrong by the British
biologists W. B. Carpenter and C. Wyville Thomson, who in 1868 discovered life in deep water
by dredging.[66] Wyville Thompson became chief scientist on the Challenger expedition of 1872
1876, which effectively created the science of oceanography.[66]

Exploitation[edit]

People have made use of the sea for millennia, for trade, warfare, travel and fishing, and more
recently for leisure, power generation, and extraction of minerals. Many of these activities have
caused marine pollution.

Trade[edit]
Main article: Shipping

Shipping routes, showing relative density of commercial shipping around the world

Large quantities of commodities and merchandise are transported by sea, especially across the
Atlantic and around the Pacific Rim. A major trade route passes through the Pillars of Hercules,
across the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal to the Indian Ocean and through the Straits of
Malacca; much trade also passes through the English Channel.[67] Shipping lanes are the routes
on the open sea used by cargo vessels. In the days of sail, these were influenced by the trade
winds and currents, and there are still advantages of using these routes today as they allow
vessels to maintain an even keel. Over sixty percent of the world's container traffic is conveyed
on the top twenty trade routes.[68] Shipping is supplemented by air freight in which cargoes are
moved by aircraft, but this is a more expensive process and is mostly used for particularly
valuable or perishable cargoes. Seaborne trade carries more than US $4 trillion worth of goods
each year.[69]

Supertanker AbQaiq in ballast

There are two main kinds of freight, bulk cargo and break bulk or general cargo. Commodities
are bulky goods in the form of liquids, powder or particles and include oil, grain, coal, ore, scrap
metal, sand and gravel. These cargoes are carried loose in the holds of bulk carriers. Break bulk
cargo is usually manufactured goods and is transported in packages, often stacked on pallets.
Before the arrival of containerization in the 1950s, these goods were loaded into the hold,
stacked and secured, transported to their destination, unstacked and unloaded in a piecemeal
fashion.[70] The increased use of containers has greatly increased the efficiency and decreased the
cost of moving these goods to international destinations. The use of containers also improves the
efficiency of moving the goods from the warehouse to the ship and from the port of arrival to the
final destination.[71]
Most freight now travels in containers that are loaded on board purpose-built container ships at
dedicated terminals. Container ships have hatches extending across the whole width of the vessel
and carry containers both in their holds and on deck.[72] The containers are lockable steel boxes
in standard sizes; this facilitates handling and stacking, and prevents pilfering. Empty containers
are reused.[72] Freight forwarding firms book the cargo, arrange pickup and delivery and manage
the necessary documentation.[73]

Food production[edit]

Main articles: Fishing, Whaling, Aquaculture, and Seaweed farming

German factory ship, 92 metres (302 ft) long

Coastal countries have an exclusive economic zone extending 200 miles (320 km) from their
shores in which they have rights to the marine resources including the fish stocks and may
regulate the species, size and total weight of catch permitted. About 87 percent of fish are caught
in these zones, but fishing vessels are increasingly venturing further afield to exploit stocks in
international waters.[74] In 2011, total world production of fish, including aquaculture, was
estimated to be 154 million tonnes of which 131 million tonnes was for human consumption. The
harvesting of wild fish accounted for 90 million tonnes while annually increasing aquacultural
production contributed about one-third of the world trade.[74] The north west Pacific is the most
productive area while fish catches in most of the other ocean areas peaked in earlier years. Fish
stocks are being fully exploited in some areas while in others, more fish are being removed than
can be replenished by natural means. The number of vessels employed in sea fishing is over 3
million.[74]

Modern fishing vessels include fishing trawlers with a small crew, stern trawlers, purse seiners,
long-line factory vessels and large factory ships which are designed to stay at sea for weeks,
catching, processing and freezing great quantities of fish. The equipment used to capture the fish
may be purse seines, other seines, trawls, dredges, gillnets and long-lines and the fish species
most frequently targeted are herring, cod, anchovy, tuna, flounder, mullet, squid and salmon.
Fishing methods vary between species, and many countries have introduced quotas in their own
waters.[75]
Fishing boat in Sri Lanka

At the other extreme, artisan fishing methods include low-technology systems including rod and
line, harpoons, skin diving, traps, throw nets and drag nets. Traditional fishing boats are
employed, powered by paddle, wind or outboard motors and operating in near-shore waters. The
FAO is encouraging the development of local fisheries to provide food security to coastal
communities and help alleviate poverty.[76]

As well as the wild stock, about 79 million tonnes of food and non-food products were produced
by sea farming in 2010, an all time high. About six hundred species of plants and animals were
cultured in this way, some for use in seeding wild populations. The animals raised included
finfish, aquatic reptiles, crustaceans, molluscs, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea squirts and
jellyfish.[77] Integrated mariculture has an advantage over more traditional aquacultural practice
in that there is a readily available supply of planktonic food and waste is removed naturally.[78]
Various methods are employed. Mesh enclosures for finfish can be suspended in the open seas,
cages can be used in more sheltered waters or ponds can be prepared which are frequently
refreshed with water at each high tide. Shrimps can similarly be reared in shallow ponds
connected to the open sea.[79] Ropes can be hung in water for the cultivation of algae, oysters and
mussels. Oysters can be reared on trays or in mesh tubes. Sea cucumbers can be ranched on the
seabed.[80] Captive breeding programmes can be developed and juveniles can be liberated into
the wild. Lobster larvae have been successfully raised in this way in Maine resulting in an
increase in the numbers of lobsters harvested locally.[81] At least 145 species of seaweed red,
green, and brown algae are eaten worldwide, and some have long been farmed in Japan and
other Asian countries; there is great potential for additional algaculture.[82] Few maritime
flowering plants are widely used for food but one example is marsh samphire which is eaten both
raw and cooked.[83]

Leisure[edit]

Main articles: Cruising (maritime), Sailing, and Recreational boat fishing

Use of the sea for leisure developed in the nineteenth century, and became a significant industry
in the twentieth century.[84] Maritime leisure activities are varied, including self-organized trips
cruising, sailing, and fishing;[85] commercially organized voyages on cruise ships;[86] and trips on
smaller vessels for ecotourism such as whale watching and coastal birdwatching.[87]

Scuba diver with face mask, flippers and underwater breathing apparatus

Humans enjoy venturing into the sea; children paddle and splash in the shallows and many
people take pleasure in bathing and relaxing on the beach. This was not always the case, with sea
bathing becoming the vogue in Europe in the 18th century after Dr. William Buchan advocated
the practice for health reasons.[88] Surfing is a sport in which a wave is ridden by a surfer, with or
without a surfboard. Other marine water sports include kite surfing, where a power kite propels a
manned board across the water,[89] windsurfing, where the power is provided by a fixed,
manoeuvrable sail[90] and water skiing, where a powerboat is used to pull a skier.[91]

Beneath the surface, spearfishing and freediving are necessarily restricted to surface waters.
Pearl divers have traditionally greased their skins, put cotton in their ears and clips on their noses
and dived to 40 feet (12 m) with baskets to collect oysters.[92] Human eyes are not adapted for
use underwater, but vision can be improved by wearing a diving mask. The possibilities for
exploration of the submarine environment are further extended by the use of flippers and
snorkels, and scuba equipment allows underwater breathing and hence a longer time can be spent
beneath the surface.[93] Diving suits can be worn, and buoyancy can be adjusted through the use
of weights.[93]

The depths that can be reached by divers and the length of time they can stay underwater is
limited by the increase of pressure they experience as they descend and the need to prevent
decompression sickness as they return to the surface. Recreational diving is limited to depths of
100 feet (30 m), beyond which nitrogen narcosis may occur. Deeper dives can be made with
specialised equipment and training.[93] A new world record was set in 2006 when a US Navy
diver descended to 2,000 feet (610 m) using a pressurized atmospheric diving suit.[94] Beyond
this depth, it is necessary to use specialist vehicles either remotely operated underwater vehicles
with lights and cameras or manned submersibles. At great depths, no light penetrates through the
water layers from above and the pressure is extreme. The battery-operated Mir submersibles
developed by NOAA have a three man crew and can descend to 20,000 feet (6,000 m). They
have viewing ports, 5,000-watt lights, video equipment and manipulator arms for collecting
samples, placing probes or pushing the vehicle across the sea bed when the thrusters would stir
up excessive sediment.[95]

Power generation[edit]

Main articles: Marine energy and offshore wind power

Off-shore wind turbine

The sea offers a very large supply of kinetic energy which is carried by ocean waves, tides,
salinity differences, and ocean temperature differences. This renewable energy, derived
ultimately from the flow of energy from the sun, can be harnessed to generate electricity.[96]
Forms of renewable marine energy include tidal power, marine current power, osmotic power,
ocean thermal energy and wave power.[96][97]

Tidal power: the 1 km long Barrage de la Rance, Brittany, generates 0.5 GW.

Tidal power requires a dam to store and then release seawater, making it an option in parts of the
world such as Brittany where the tidal range is large. The Rance barrage, 1 km long, near St
Malo opened in 1967; it generates about 0.5 GW, but it has been followed by few similar
schemes. A 7 GW scheme for the Severn Estuary, which has the world's second-largest tidal
range, has been proposed.[98]
The large and highly variable energy of waves gives them enormous destructive capability,
making affordable and reliable wave machines problematic to develop. A small 2 MW
commercial wave power plant, "Osprey", was built in Northern Scotland in 1995 about 300
metres offshore. It was quickly damaged by waves, then destroyed by a storm.[99]

Marine current power is a relatively predictable energy source, since unlike wind or solar power
it is available around the clock, and it could provide populated areas close to the sea, such as
Florida, with a significant part of their energy needs.[100] In principle, marine current power could
be harnessed by a variety of types of open-flow turbine, which could be supported by systems on
the sea bed, floating and moored, or intermediate; sea bed systems are already available, but are
limited to a depth of about 40 metres.[101]

Osmotic or salinity gradient power exploits the energy available across a membrane with salt
water one side and fresh water on the other. Power could be obtained by either of two
technologies that have been tested in the laboratory, reverse electrodialysis and pressure-retarded
osmosis.[102]

Cumulative offshore wind power capacity[103]

Ocean thermal energy conversion exploits the small temperature difference between cooler deep
and warmer shallow or surface waters to produce electricity with a heat engine using the Rankine
cycle. The technology can employ either an open or a closed cycle. The closed cycle uses an
evaporator, a turbogenerator, and a condenser to reuse a working fluid, like a refrigerator
working in reverse, and depends critically on costly heat exchangers. The open cycle avoids heat
exchangers but is vulnerable to dissolved gases, and works at low pressure so it requires very
large flow rates and hence large turbines. Despite the promise of thermal energy conversion, the
projected cost per kilowatt has prevented its use for commercial energy production, though
small-scale uses for cooling and mariculture are in operation.[104][105]

Offshore wind power is captured by wind turbines placed out at sea; it has the advantage that
wind speeds are higher than on land, though wind farms are more costly to construct
offshore.[106] The first offshore wind farm was installed in Denmark in 1991.[107] The installed
capacity of offshore wind farms in European waters reached 3 GW in 2010.[108] Offshore wind
power capacity grew rapidly between 2000 and 2010[103] and by 2011 was a more mature
technology than marine energy.[109] Wind power provides clean, renewable electric power,[104]
but to capture a significant share of the energy market it needs to improve its performance,
reliability and cost from 2011 levels.[109] There are other challenges: large wind farms affect
local meteorology; there can be impacts on wildlife such as birds; wind power is variable and
unpredictable, and like solar power it cannot be "dispatched" to provide energy to meet cycles of
consumer demand.[109]

Extractive industries[edit]

Main articles: Subsea (technology) and Desalination

The seabed contains enormous reserves of minerals. Exploitation of these in shallow water on
continental shelves is done by dredging. This process has certain advantages over land-based
mining in that the construction of equipment can be done at specialised shipyards and the
infrastructure costs are lower. Disadvantages include the problems caused by the waves and
tides, the tendency for excavations to silt up and the washing away of spoil heaps. There is a
need to consider possible coastal erosion and the damage done to the environment.[110]

Minerals precipitated near a hydrothermal vent

Seafloor massive sulphide deposits have been recognised as potential sources of silver, gold,
copper, lead and zinc as well as other trace metals since their discovery in the 1960s. They are
the result of deposits formed when geothermally heated water is emitted from deep sea
hydrothermal vents known as "black smokers". The grades of ore are high, but the cost of
extraction is currently prohibitive.[111] Small scale mining of the deep sea floor is being
developed off the coast of Papua New Guinea using robotic techniques, but the obstacles are
formidable. Environmentalists are concerned that mining operations might cause large-scale
damage and destroy animal communities clustered round underwater vents.[112]

There are large deposits of petroleum in the form of oil and natural gas in rocks beneath the
seabed. Offshore platforms and drilling rigs are used to extract the oil or gas and store it until it
can be transported to land. Offshore oil and gas production is more challenging than on-land due
to the remote, harsh environment. There is a trend towards conducting more of the production
operations on the seabed, by separating water from oil there or by pumping it onshore with no
installations visible above the sea. Mobile offshore drilling units are used to drill the initial well
and are then moved elsewhere and by this means, deeper water deposits can be exploited.[113]
Drilling for oil in the sea has environmental impacts. Animals may be disorientated by seismic
waves used to locate deposits, and these are believed to have caused the beaching of whales.
Toxic substances such as mercury, lead and arsenic may be released into the sea. The
infrastructure may cause damage, and oil may be spilt.[114] As a result of the explosion that
destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, new safety
standards have been introduced into the industry and advances made in controlling released
oil.[115]

Manganese nodules are a possible source of minerals from the seabed.

Large quantities of methane clathrate exist on the seabed and in ocean sediment at a temperature
of around 2 C (36 F) and these are of interest as a potential energy source. Some estimates of
the potential resource put the amount available at between one and five million cubic kilometres
(0.24 to 1.2 million cubic miles).[116] Also lying on the seabed are manganese nodules formed of
concentric layers of iron, manganese and other hydroxides around a core. In the Pacific these are
particularly numerous and may cover ten to thirty percent of the deep ocean floor. Some are
shallowly buried in the sediment but few are found underneath it. The minerals precipitate from
seawater and grow very slowly. Their commercial extraction was investigated in the 1970s,
primarily for the nickel they contained, but was abandoned in favour of more convenient sources
of the metal.[117]
Reverse osmosis desalination plant

The sea holds enormous quantities of valuable minerals dissolved in the water.[118] Salt for table
and industrial use is the most important of these and has been harvested by solar evaporation
from shallow ponds since prehistoric times. Another element obtained from the sea is bromine,
which has accumulated there after leaching from the land. It is economically recovered from the
Dead Sea, where it occurs at 55,000 parts per million (ppm).[119] Magnesium can be obtained by
adding lime to seawater and precipitating the resulting insoluble hydroxide. Gold and uranium
are present in seawater at very low concentrations (0.000011 ppm and 0.0033 ppm respectively),
and a number of retrieval attempts have all failed or proved impractical.[120]

Desalination is the technique of removing salts from seawater to leave fresh water suitable for
drinking or irrigation. The two main processing methods, vacuum distillation and reverse
osmosis, use large quantities of energy. Desalination is normally only undertaken where fresh
water from other sources is in short supply or energy is plentiful, as in the excess heat generated
by power stations. The brine produced as a by-product contains some toxic materials and is
returned to the sea.[121] An alternative method of producing pure water is as part of an integrated
biotectural system, which relies on solar thermal energy or wind power for distillation and
produces sea salt as a by-product. This type of process is being used on a limited scale in the
Middle East and North Africa.[122]

Naval warfare[edit]

Main article: Naval warfare

Naval warfare: The explosion of the Spanish flagship during the Battle of Gibraltar, 25 April 1607 by
Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen, formerly attributed to Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom

Control of the sea is important to the security of a maritime nation, and the naval blockade of a
port can be used to cut off food and supplies in time of war. Battles have been fought on the sea
for more than 3,000 years. In about 1210 B.C., the king of the Hittites defeated and burned a
fleet from Cyprus. In the decisive 480 B.C. Battle of Salamis, the Greek general Themistocles
trapped the far larger fleet of the Persian king Xerxes in a narrow channel and attacked
vigorously, destroying 200 Persian ships for the loss of 40 Greek vessels.[123] At the end of the
Age of Sail, the English navy, led by Horatio Nelson, broke the power of the combined French
and Spanish fleets at the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar.[124]

With steam and the industrial production of steel plate came greatly increased firepower in the
shape of the dreadnought battleships armed with long-range guns. In 1905, the Japanese fleet
decisively defeated the Russian fleet, which had travelled over 18,000 nautical miles
(33,000 km), at the Battle of Tsushima.[125] Dreadnoughts fought inconclusively in the First
World War at the 1916 Battle of Jutland between the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial
German Navy's High Seas Fleet.[126] In the Second World War, the British victory at the 1940
Battle of Taranto showed that naval air power was sufficient to overcome the largest warships,
foreshadowing the decisive sea-battles of the Pacific War including the Battles of the Coral Sea,
Midway, the Philippine Sea, and the climactic Battle of Leyte Gulf, in all of which the dominant
ships were aircraft carriers.[127]

Marine pollution[edit]

Main article: Marine pollution

Marine debris on Hawaiian coast

Many substances enter the sea as a result of human activities. Combustion products from
vehicles, factories and homes are transported in the air and deposited into the sea by
precipitation. Industrial outflows and sewage treatment plants contribute heavy metals and other
toxic substances to waterways. Pesticides, PCBs, disinfectants, household cleaning products and
other synthetic chemicals follow the same route and end up in the sea. Although these products
may be present in minute proportions in the open ocean, there is a higher concentration of them
in the surface film and in the marine sediment, especially in estuarine mud. The result of all this
contamination is largely unknown because of the large number of substances involved and the
lack of information on their biological effects.[128] The heavy metals of greatest concern are
copper, lead, mercury, cadmium and zinc which may be bio-accumulated by marine
invertebrates that lack metabolic pathways to deal with them. They are cumulative toxins and are
passed up the food chain.[129]
Much floating plastic rubbish does not biodegrade, instead disintegrating over time and
eventually breaking down to the molecular level. Rigid plastics tend to remain undegraded and
float for years.[130] In the centre of the Pacific gyre there is a permanent floating accumulation of
mostly plastic waste[131] and there is a similar garbage patch in the Atlantic.[132] Foraging sea
birds such as the albatross, fulmar, shearwater and petrel may mistake debris for food, and
accumulate indigestible plastic in their digestive systems. Turtles and whales have been found
with items such as plastic bags and fishing line in their stomachs. Microplastics may sink,
threatening filter feeders and other marine invertebrates.[133]

Oil spills conspicuously damage the marine environment, but most oil in the sea comes from
cities and industry.[134] Oil is dangerous for marine animals. It can clog the feathers of sea birds,
reducing their insulating effect and the birds' buoyancy, and be ingested when they preen
themselves in an attempt to remove the contaminant. Marine mammals are less seriously affected
but may be chilled through the removal of their insulation, blinded, dehydrated or poisoned.
Benthic invertebrates are swamped when the oil sinks, fish are poisoned and the food chain is
disrupted. In the short term, oil spills result in wildlife populations being decreased and
unbalanced, leisure activities being affected and the livelihoods of people dependant on the sea
being devastated.[135] The marine environment has self-cleansing properties and naturally
occurring bacteria will act over time to remove the oil from the sea.[136]

Run-off of fertilisers from agricultural land is a great source of pollution in some areas and the
discharge of raw sewage has a similar effect. The extra nutrients provided by these sources can
cause eutrophication. Nitrogen is often the limiting factor in marine systems, and with added
nitrogen, algal blooms and red tides can occur which lower the oxygen level of the water and kill
marine animals. This pollution has caused dead zones in some parts of the world such as the
Baltic Sea and Gulf of Mexico.[134] Some algal blooms are caused by cyanobacteria that contain
toxins that build up in the tissues of shellfish that filter feed on them. The molluscs are
apparently unharmed, but other wildlife such as sea otters that eat them can be severely
affected.[137]

In culture[edit]

People experience the sea in contradictory ways: as powerful but serene, beautiful but
dangerous.[138] Human reactions to the sea are found in, for example, literature, art, poetry, film,
theatre, and classical music, as well as in mythology and the psychotherapeutic interpretation of
dreams.

In literature[edit]
The 10,000 Greeks shout for joy: The Sea! The Sea!, painting by Granville Baker

The sea has appeared in literature since at least the time of the Ancient Greek poet Homer who
describes it as "wine dark sea" (onops pntos). In his epic poem the Odyssey, written in the 8th
century BC,[139] he describes the ten-year voyage of the Greek hero Odysseus who struggles to
return home across the sea after the war with Troy described in the Iliad. His wandering voyage
takes him from one strange and dangerous land to another, experiencing among other maritime
hazards shipwreck, the sea-monster Scylla, the whirlpool Charybdis and the island Ogygia of the
delightful nymph Calypso.[139]

The soldier Xenophon, in his Anabasis, told how he witnessed the roaming 10,000 Greeks seeing
the Black Sea from Mount Theches, after participating in Cyrus the Younger's failed march
against the Persian Empire in 401 BC.[140] The 10,000 joyfully shouted "Thlatta! Thlatta!
"(Greek: ! !) "The Sea! The Sea!"[141]

In modern European literature, the novelist Joseph Conrad wrote sea-inspired books including
An Outcast of the Islands (1896), The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' (1897), Lord Jim (1900),
Typhoon (1902) and The Shadow Line (1916), all of which draw on his personal experience of
the sea: he had been a captain in the merchant navy.[142]

The Nan-Shan was ploughing a vanishing furrow upon the circle of the sea that had the surface and the
shimmer of an undulating piece of gray silk.

Typhoon, by Joseph Conrad[143]

The American novelist Herman Wouk writes that "Nobody, but nobody, could write about
storms at sea like Conrad."[144] One of Wouk's own marine novels, The Caine Mutiny (1952),
won the Pulitzer Prize.[145] A well-known American maritime work is Herman Melville's 1851
novel Moby-Dick, describing the adventures of the sailor Ishmael, the whaleship Pequod, its
Captain Ahab, and the white sperm whale, Moby Dick.[146] It is possible to take an academic
course in the literature of the sea.[147]
The sea is a recurring theme in the Haiku poems of the leading Japanese Edo period poet Matsuo
Bash ( ) (16441694).[148] Among his sea Haiku is:

araumi ya / Sado ni yokotau / amanogawa

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way [1689][149]

The albatross played a central part in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's influential 1798 poem The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner, which in turn gave rise to the usage of albatross as metaphor for a
burden.[150]

In his 1902 poem The Sea and the Hills, Rudyard Kipling expresses the urge for the sea, and uses
alliteration[151] to suggest the sea's sound and rhythms:[152]

Who hath desired the Sea?the sight of salt water unbounded

The heave and the halt and the hurl and the crash of the comber wind-hounded?[153]

while the poem's refrain runs:

His Sea in no showing the samehis Sea and the same 'neath each showing : His Sea as she
slackens or thrills ?[153]

John Masefield also felt the pull of the sea in his Sea Fever, writing "I must go down to the seas
again, to the lonely sea and the sky."[154]

In art[edit]

Main article: Marine art

Dutch Golden Age painting: The Y at Amsterdam, seen from the Mosselsteiger (mussel pier) by Ludolf
Bakhuizen, 1673

People have depicted ships and boats in art for centuries, but the genre of marine art became
especially important in the paintings of the Dutch Golden Age, with works showing the Dutch
navy at the peak of its military prowess.[155] Artists such as Jan Porcellis, Simon de Vlieger, Jan
van de Cappelle, Hendrick Dubbels, Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son, Ludolf
Bakhuizen and Reinier Nooms created maritime paintings in a wide variety of styles.[156]

The Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai created colour prints of the moods of the sea, including
"The Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa" showing the destructive force of the sea at the
same time as its ever-changing beauty.[157]

In cinema and theatre[edit]

The sea is a major element in Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Nicholas Rowe's 1709 edition

The sea appears from the earliest days of cinema, starting with Louis Lumire's silent 1895
documentary La Mer.[158] The 1953 film The Cruel Sea begins with a voice-over by the actor
Jack Hawkins including the words "The only villain is the sea, the cruel sea, that man has made
more cruel..."[159][160] Films such as Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot (1981) and The Perfect Storm
(2000) play on the violence of the sea.[161][162]

In theatre, William Shakespeare's 161011 play The Tempest has a stormy sea as a major
element.[163] The Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's 1888 play The Lady from the Sea
(Norwegian: Fruen fra havet) tells the story of the daughter of a lighthouse keeper who grew up
beside the sea. She marries a small-town doctor but remains emotionally attached to a seaman.
Eventually she has to decide between the two.[164]
In classical music[edit]

The sea-monster Isonade, from Takehara Shunsen's Ehon Hyaku Monogatari, c. 1841

The sea has inspired much music over the centuries. Richard Wagner stated that his 1843 opera
The Flying Dutchman[165] was inspired by a memorable sea crossing from Riga to London, his
ship being delayed in the Norwegian fjords at Tvedestrand for two weeks by storms.[166] The
French composer Debussy's 190305 work La mer, trois esquisses symphoniques pour orchestre
(the sea, three symphonic sketches for orchestra), completed on the English Channel coast,
evokes the sea with "a multitude of water figurations".[167] Other works composed at about this
time include Charles Villiers Stanford's Songs of the Sea (1904) and Songs of the Fleet (1910),
Edward Elgar's Sea Pictures (1899) and Vaughan Williams' choral work, A Sea Symphony
(19031909).[168] Four Sea Interludes (1945) is an orchestral suite by Benjamin Britten that
forms part of his opera, Peter Grimes.[169]

In symbolism: mythology and psychotherapy[edit]

Symbolically, the sea has long been perceived as a hostile and dangerous environment populated
by fantastic creatures: the Leviathan of the Bible,[170] Scylla in Greek mythology,[171] Isonade in
Japanese mythology,[172] and the Kraken of late Norse mythology.[173]

In the psychotherapist Carl Jung's thought, the sea symbolized the Collective unconscious:[174]

[Dream] By the sea shore. The sea breaks into the land, flooding everything. Then the dreamer is
sitting on a lonely island.

[Interpretation] The sea is the symbol of the Collective unconscious, because unfathomed
depths lie concealed beneath its reflecting surface.[174]

In a footnote to this, Jung writes "The sea is a favourite place for the birth of visions (i.e.
invasions by unconscious contents)".[174]
Effects of global warming on oceans
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Waves on an ocean coast

Animated map exhibiting the world's oceanic waters. A continuous body of water encircling the Earth,
the World Ocean is divided into a number of principal areas with relatively free interchange among
them. Five oceanic divisions are usually reckoned: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern; the last
two listed are sometimes consolidated into the first three.

Global mean land-ocean temperature change from 18802011, relative to the 19511980 mean. The
black line is the annual mean and the red line is the 5-year running mean. The green bars show
uncertainty estimates. Source: NASA GISS
Energy (heat) added to various parts of the climate system due to global warming.

Earth's oceans

Arctic
Pacific
Atlantic
Indian
Southern

World Ocean

v
t
e
Global warming can effect sea levels, coastlines, ocean acidification, ocean currents, seawater,
sea surface temperatures as well as depths,[1] tides, the sea floor, weather and change entire
climates. All of these affect how a society functions.

Contents
[hide]

1 Sea level
o 1.1 Coasts
o 1.2 Society
o 1.3 Global issue
2 Ocean currents
3 Ocean acidification
4 Weather
5 Sea floor
o 5.1 Definition
o 5.2 Terrigenous
o 5.3 Hydrogenous
o 5.4 Size classification
o 5.5 Climate change
6 Predictions
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links

Sea level[edit]
Coasts[edit]

Global warming in the last century has increased sea levels worldwide, though there are regional
variations; see sea level rise. Although global warming has affected the volume of seawater in all
of the worlds oceans, it is important to look at the change in sea level in particular coastal areas,
especially throughout short periods of time (fifty to one hundred years). In order to estimate the
rise in global seawater level, scientists combine sea level trends at tidal stations around the
world.[2]

There are a number of factors affecting rising sea levels, including the thermal expansion of
seawater, the melting of glaciers and ice sheets on land, and possibly human changes to
groundwater storage. With regards to thermal expansion, the increase in the atmospheres
greenhouse gas content has a warming effect on the whole planet but especially on the oceans,
which absorb much of the heat. Despite waters high heat capacity, this heat that is radiated into
the ocean by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere cause water molecules to expand, thus creating
more water volume in the oceans. With concern to melting glaciers and ice sheets, global
warming also has an enormous impact. Higher global temperatures melt glaciers such as the one
on Greenland,[3] which flow into the oceans, adding to the amount of seawater. A large rise (in
the order of several feet) in global sea levels poses many threats. According to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), such a rise would inundate coastal wetlands and
lowlands, erode beaches, increase the risk of flooding, and increase the salinity of estuaries,
aquifers, and wetlands.[2]

The areas which would be most affected by rising sea levels are, of course, coastal regions. The
increase in sea level along the coasts of continents, especially North America are much more
significant than the global average. According to 2007 estimates by the International Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), global average sea level will rise between 0.6 and 2 feet (0.18 to 0.59
meters) in the next century.[4] Along the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, however, sea level
rose in the last century 5 to 6 inches more than the global average. This is due to the subsiding of
coastal lands.[4] The sea level along the U.S. Pacific coast has also increased more than the global
average but less than along the Atlantic coast. This can be explained by the varying continental
margins along both coasts; the Atlantic type continental margin is characterized by a wide,
gently sloping continental shelf, while the Pacific type continental margin incorporates a narrow
shelf and slope descending into a deep trench.[5] Since low-sloping coastal regions should retreat
faster than higher-sloping regions, the Atlantic coast is more vulnerable to sea level rise than the
Pacific coast.[6]

Society[edit]

The rise in sea level along coastal regions carries implications for a wide range of habitats and
inhabitants. Firstly, rising sea levels will have a serious impact on beachesa place which
humans love to visit recreationally and a prime location for real estate. It is ideal to live on the
coast due to a more moderate climate and pleasant scenery, but beachfront property is at risk
from eroding land and rising sea levels. Since the threat posed by rising sea levels has become
more prominent, property owners and local government have taken measures to prepare for the
worst. For example, Maine has enacted a policy declaring that shorefront buildings will have to
be moved to enable beaches and wetlands to migrate inland to higher ground.[2] Additionally,
many coastal states add sand to their beaches to offset shore erosion, and many property owners
have elevated their structures in low-lying areas. As well, with the effect of large storms on
coastal lands eroding and ruining properties governments have looked into buying land and
having residents relocate further inland.

Another important coastal habitat that is threatened by sea level rise is wetlands, which occur
along the margins of estuaries and other shore areas that are protected from the open ocean and
include swamps, tidal flats, coastal marshes and bayous.[7] Wetlands are extremely vulnerable to
rising sea levels, since they are within several feet of sea level. The threat posed to wetlands is
serious, due to the fact that they are highly productive ecosystems, and they have an enormous
impact on the economy of surrounding areas. Wetlands in the U.S. are rapidly disappearing due
to an increase in housing, industry, and agriculture, and rising sea levels help contribute to this
dangerous trend. As a result from rising sea levels, the outer boundary of wetlands would erode,
forming new wetlands more inland. According to the EPA, the amount of newly created
wetlands, however, could be much smaller than the lost area of wetlands especially in
developed areas protected with bulkheads, dikes, and other structures that keep new wetlands
from forming inland.[8] When estimating a sea level rise within the next century of 50 cm (20
inches), the U.S. would lose 38% to 61% of its existing coastal wetlands.[9]

A rise in sea level will have not only a negative impact on coastal property and economy, but it
will also diminish our supply of fresh water. According to the EPA, Rising sea level increases
the salinity of both surface water and ground water through salt water intrusion.[8] Coastal
estuaries and aquifers, therefore, are at a high risk of becoming too saline from rising sea levels.
With concern to estuaries, an increase in salinity would threaten aquatic animals and plants that
cannot tolerate high levels of salinity. Aquifers often serve as a primary water supply to
surrounding areas, such as Floridas Biscayne aquifer, which receives freshwater from the
Everglades and then supplies water to the Florida Keys. Rising sea levels would submerge low-
lying areas of the Everglades, and salinity would greatly increase in portions of the aquifer.[8] A
considerable rise in sea level and decreasing amounts of freshwater along the Atlantic and Gulf
coasts, therefore, would make those areas rather inhabitable.

Global issue[edit]

Since rising sea levels present a pressing problem not only to coastal communities but also the
whole global population, much scientific research has been performed to analyze the causes and
consequences of a rise in sea level. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted such research
concerning coastal vulnerability to sea level rise, and it incorporated six physical variables to
analyze the changes in sea level. The six variables were the following: geomorphology; coastal
slope (percent); rate of relative sea level rise (mm/yr); shoreline erosion and acceleration rates
(m/yr); mean tidal range (m); and mean wave height (m).[10] Research was conducted on the
different coasts of the U.S., and the results are very useful for future reference. Along the Pacific
coast, the most vulnerable areas are low-lying beaches, and their susceptibility is primarily a
function of geomorphology and coastal slope.[11] With concern to research performed along the
Atlantic coast, the most vulnerable areas to sea level rise were found to be along the Mid-
Atlantic coast (Maryland to North Carolina) and Northern Florida, since these are typically
high-energy coastlines where the regional coastal slope is low and where the major landform
type is a barrier island.[12] With regards to the Gulf coast, the most vulnerable areas are along
the Louisiana-Texas coast. According to the results, the highest-vulnerability areas are typically
lower-lying beach and marsh areas; their susceptibility is primarily a function of geomorphology,
coastal slope and rate of relative sea-level rise.[13]

It is crucial that human awareness about rising sea levels and the consequences of it increases.
Humans have a substantial influence on the rise of sea level by emitting more and more carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere through automobile use and industry. A higher amount of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere leads to higher global temperatures, which then results in thermal
expansion of seawater and melting of glaciers and ice sheets.

Ocean currents[edit]
The currents in the worlds oceans are a result of varying temperatures associated with the
changing latitudes of our planet. As the atmosphere is warmed most near the equator, the hot air
near the surface of our planet is heated, causing it to rise and draw in cooler air to take its place,
creating what is known as circulation cells.[14] This ultimately causes the air to be significantly
colder near the poles than at the equator.

Driving surface currents is the wind patterns associated with these circulation cells.[15] They end
up pushing the surface water to the higher latitudes where the air is now cold. It cools the water
down enough, to where it is capable of dissolving more gasses and minerals.This causes it to
become very dense in relation to lower latitude waters which in turn causes it to sink to the
bottom of the ocean, forming what is known as North Atlantic Deep Water, or NADW, in the
north, and Antarctic Bottom Water, or AABW, in the south.[16] By virtue of this sinking, the
upwelling that occurs in lower latitudes, and the driving force of the winds on surface water, the
ocean currents all act to circulate all water throughout the entire ocean.

When global warming is added into the equation, changes occur, especially in the regions where
deep water is formed. With the warming of the oceans and subsequent melting of glaciers and
the polar ice caps, more and more fresh water is released into the high latitude regions where
deep water is formed. This extra water that gets thrown into the chemical mix dilutes the
contents of the water arriving from lower latitudes. This reduces the density of the surface water
and as such, the water sinks slower than it normally would.[17]

An important thing to note about ocean currents is that they provide the necessary nutrients for
life to sustain itself in the lower latitudes.[18] Should the currents slow down, life would have less
nutrients being brought to it to be able to sustain it and the food chain would crumble, irreparably
damaging the marine ecosystem. Slower currents would also mean less carbon fixation.
Naturally, the ocean is the largest sink within which carbon is stored. When waters become
saturated with carbon, the excess carbon will have nowhere to go because the currents are not
bringing up enough fresh water to fix the excess. This causes a rise in atmospheric carbon which
in turn causes positive feedback that can lead to a runaway greenhouse effect.[19]

Ocean acidification[edit]
Global warming's additional effect on the carbon cycle is ocean acidification. The ocean and the
atmosphere constantly try to maintain a state of equilibrium. So a rise in atmospheric carbon
naturally leads to a rise in oceanic carbon. When carbon is dissolved in water, it forms hydrogen
and bicarbonate ions, which in turn breaks down to hydrogen and carbonate ions.[20] All these
extra hydrogen ions increase the acidity of the ocean and make it harder for planktonic
organisms that depend on calcium carbonate for their shells to survive. A decrease in the base of
the food chain will, once again, be destructive to the ecosystems to which they belong. With less
of these photosynthetic organisms present at the surface of the ocean, less carbon will be
converted to oxygen, thereby letting the greenhouse gasses go unchecked.

Weather[edit]
The effects of global warming on weather patterns is also interesting as it pertains to cyclones.
Scientists have found that although there have been fewer cyclones than in the past, the intensity
of each cyclone has increased.[21] A simplified definition of what global warming means for the
planet is that colder regions will get warmer and warmer regions would get much warmer.[22]
However, speculation also exists saying that the complete opposite could be true. A warmer earth
could serve to moderate temperatures worldwide. Much is still not understood about the earths
climate because it is very difficult to make climate models. As such, predicting the effects global
warming might have on our planet is still an inexact science.[23]

Sea floor[edit]
Definition[edit]

The contents of the ocean floor vary diversely in their origin from eroded land materials carried
into the ocean by rivers or wind flow, the waste and decompositions of sea animals, precipitation
of chemicals within the sea water it self, and even some from outer space.[24] There are four basic
types of sediment of the seafloor. Terrigenous describes the sediment derived from the materials
eroded by rain, rivers, glaciers and that blown into the ocean by the wind such as volcanic ash.
Biogenous describes the sediment made up of the hard parts of sea animals that compile on the
bottom of the ocean. Hydrogenous sediment is dissolved materials that precipitate in the ocean
when conditions in the ocean change. Lastly, Cosmogenous sediment describes extraterrestrial
sources. These are the components that make up the seafloor under their genetic classifications.

Terrigenous[edit]

Terrigenous sediments is the most abundant sediment found on the seafloor. Followed by the
biogenous sediment. In areas of the ocean floor where the sediment is 30% biogenous materials
or more, it is then labeled as an ooze. There are two types of oozes: Calcareous oozes and
Siliceous oozes. Plankton is the contributor of oozes. Calcareous oozes are predominantly
composed of calcium shells found in phytoplankton such as coccolithophores and zooplankton
like the foraminiferans. These calcareous oozes are never found past depths deeper than about
4,000 to 5,000 meters because as you go deeper down, the calcium dissolves.[25] Siliceous oozes,
similarly are dominated by the siliceous shells of phytoplankton like diatoms and zooplankton
such as radiolarians. Depending on the productivity of these planktonic organisms, the shell
material that collects when these organisms die may build up a rate anywhere from 1mm to 1 cm
every 1000 years.[25]

Hydrogenous[edit]

Hydrogenous sediments are uncommon. They only occur when oceanic conditions change, like
in either temperature or pressure. And rarer still are cosmogenous sediments. Hydrogenous
sediments are formed from dissolved chemicals that precipitate from the ocean water or they can
form by these metallic elements binding onto rocks that have really hot water of more than 300
degrees Celsius circulating around, along the mid-ocean ridges, and when elements mix with the
cold sea water they precipitate from the cooling water.[25] These, known as manganese nodules,
are composed of layers of different metals like manganese, iron, nickel, cobalt, and copper and
are always found on the surface of the ocean floor.[25] Cosmogenous sediments are the remains of
space debris such as comets and asteroids, made up of silicates and various metals that have
impacted the Earth.[26]

Size classification[edit]

Another way that sediments are described is through their descriptive classification. These
sediments vary in size, anywhere from 1/4096 of a mm to greater than 256 mm. The different
types are boulder, cobble, pebble, granule, sand, silt, and clay. Each type becomes finer in grain.
The grain size indicates what type of sediment it is and the environment in which it was created.
Large grains sink fast and can only be pushed by rapid flowing water (high energy environment)
whereas small grains sink very slowly and can be suspended by slight water movement and
accumulate in conditions where water is not moving so quickly.[27] Therefore, larger grains of
sediment come together in higher energy conditions and smaller grains in lower energy
conditions.

Various amounts of these sediments are deposited around the world and get distributed in three
waysthe processes of production, dilution, and destruction.

Climate change[edit]

It is known that climate affects the ocean and the ocean affects the climate. Due to climate
change, as the ocean gets warmer this too has an effect on the seafloor. Because of greenhouse
gasses such as carbon dioxide, this will have an effect on the bicarbonate buffer of the ocean.
The bicarbonate buffer is the concentration of bicarbonate ions that keeps the oceans acidity
balanced between a ph range of 7.5-8.4.[28] An addition of carbon dioxide in the oceans makes
the oceans more acidic. Increased ocean acidity is not good for the planktonic organisms that
depend on calcium to form their shells. Calcium dissolves with very weak acids and increase in
the oceans acidity will be destructive for the calcareous organisms. This will lead to the Calcite
Compensation Depth (CCD), depth below calcite is completely dissolve, to grow in size causing
the calcite to dissolve at higher depths.[28] This will then have a great effect on the calcareous
ooze in the ocean as the sediment itself would begin to dissolve.

Predictions[edit]
Calculations of global warming prepared in or before 2001 from a range of climate models under the
SRES A2 emissions scenario, which assumes no action is taken to reduce emissions and regionally
divided economic development.

The geographic distribution of surface warming during the 21st century calculated by the HadCM3
climate model if a business as usual scenario is assumed for economic growth and greenhouse gas
emissions. In this figure, the globally averaged warming corresponds to 3.0 C (5.4 F).

If ocean temperatures rise it will have an effect right beneath the ocean floor and allow the
addition of another greenhouse gas, methane gas. Methane gas has been found under methane
hydrate, frozen methane and water, beneath the ocean floor. With the ocean warming, this
methane hydrate will begin to melt and release methane gas contributing to global warming.[29]
Increase of water temperature will also have a devastating effect on different oceanic ecosystems
like coral reefs. The direct effect is the coral bleaching of these reefs. These reefs live within a
narrow temperature margin, so a small increase in temperature has drastic effects in these
environments. When corals bleach it is because the coral loses 60-90% of their zooxanthellae
due to different stressors, ocean temperature being one of them, and if the bleaching is prolonged
for an uncertain amount of time the coral host dies.[30]

Although uncertain, another effect climate change may be having is with the growth, toxicity,
and distribution of harmful algal blooms.[31] These algal blooms have serious effects on not only
marine ecosystems, killing sea animals and fish with their toxins, but also for humans as well.
Some of these blooms deplete the oxygen around them to such low levels that fish die. It is
important that these harmful effects are noted with higher levels of awareness so that changes
can be implemented before its too late.

Tsunamis: the effects

Introduction
The effects of a tsunami on a coastline can range from unnoticeable to devastating. The effects of a tsunami
depend on the characteristics of the seismic event that generated the tsunami, the distance from its point of
origin, its size (magnitude) and, at last, the configuration of the bathymetry (that is the depth of water in
oceans) along the coast that the tsunami is approaching.
Small tsunamis, non-destructive and undetectable without specialized equipment, happen almost every day as a
result of minor earthquakes and other events. They are very often too far away from land or they are too small
to have any effect when they hit the shore. When a small tsunami comes to the shoreline it is often seen as a
strong and fast-moving tide.
Tsunamis have long periods and can overcome obstacles such as gulfs, bays and islands. These tsunamis make
landfall usually in the form of suddenly decreasing and then rapidly increasing water levels (not unlike a tidal
bore) a combination of several large waves or bore-type waves. Generally tsunamis arrive, not as giant
breaking waves, but as a forceful rapid increase in water levels that results in violent flooding.
However, when tsunami waves become extremely large in height, they savagely attack coastlines, causing
devastating property damage and loss of life. A small wave only 30 centimetres high in the deep ocean may
grow into a monster wave 30m high as it sweeps over the shore. The effects can be further amplified where a
bay, harbour, or lagoon funnels the waves as they move inland. Large tsunamis have been known to rise to
over 100 feet!
Video: Earthquake and tsunami occurred in Japan on 11-Mar-2011

Destruction
The amount of energy and water contained in a huge tsunami can cause extreme destruction when it strikes
land.
The initial wave of a huge tsunami is extremely tall; however, most damage is not sustained by this wave.
Most of the damage is caused by the huge mass of water behind the initial wave front, as the height of the sea
keeps rising fast and floods powerfully into the coastal area. It is the power behind the waves, the endless
rushing water that causes devastation and loss of life. When the giant breaking waves of a tsunami batter the
shoreline, they can destroy everything in their path.
Destruction is caused by two mechanisms: the smashing force of a wall of water traveling at high speed, and
the destructive power of a large volume of water draining off the land and carrying all with it, even if the wave
did not look large.
Objects and buildings are destroyed by the sheer weight of the water, often reduced to skeletal foundations and
exposed bedrock. Large objects such as ships and boulders can be carried several miles inland before the
tsunami subsides.
Tsunami waves destroy boats, buildings, bridges, cars, trees, telephone lines, power lines - and just about
anything else in their way. Once the tsunami waves have knocked down infrastructure on the shore they may
continue to travel for several miles inland, sweeping away more trees, buildings, cars and other man made
equipment. Small islands hit by a tsunami are left unrecognizable.
 Image: Homes are destroyed by a tsunami

Especially along a high seismic area, known as the Ring of Fire, tsunamis may have dramatic consequences as
they hit less developed countries.
The buildings infrastructure in these poorer nations are not well built and cannot withstand the impact of the
tsunami. Whole areas and towns are a picture of destruction as the tsunami leaves at trail devastation and
misery behind it.

Death
One of the biggest and worst effects of a tsunami is the cost to human life because unfortunately escaping a
tsunami is nearly impossible. Hundreds and thousands of people are killed by tsunamis. Since 1850 alone,
tsunamis have been responsible for the loss of more than 430,000 lives. There is very little warning before a
tsunamis hits land. As the water rushes toward land, it leaves very little time to map an escape plan.
People living in coastal regions, towns and villages have no time to escape. The violent force of the tsunami
results in instant death, most commonly by drowning. Buildings collapsing, electrocution, and explosions from
gas, damaged tanks and floating debris are another cause of death. The tsunami of December 2004 that struck
South East Asia and East Africa killed over 31,000 people in Sri Lanka only, leaving 23,000 injured.
 Image: Child being carried away

Disease
Tsunami waves and the receding water are very destructive to structures in the run-up zone. The areas close to
the coast are flooded with sea water, damaging the infrastructure such as sewage and fresh water supplies for
drinking.
Flooding and contamination of drinking water can cause disease to spread in the tsunami hit areas. Illnesses
such as malaria arise when water is stagnant and contaminated. Under these conditions it is difficult for people
to stay healthy and for diseases to be treated, so infections and illnesses can spread very quickly, causing more
death.

Environmental impacts
Tsunamis not only destroy human life, but have a devastating effect on insects, animals, plants, and natural
resources. A tsunami changes the landscape. It uproots trees and plants and destroys animal habitats such as
nesting sites for birds. Land animals are killed by drowning and sea animals are killed by pollution if
dangerous chemicals are washed away into the sea, thus poisoning the marine life.
The impact of a tsunami on the environment relates not only to the landscape and animal life, but also to the
man-made aspects of the environment. Solid waste and disaster debris are the most critical environmental
problem faced by a tsunami-hit country.
Recycling and disposal of this waste in an environmentally sensitive manner where possible (crushing
concrete, bricks, etc. to produce aggregate for rebuilding and road reconstruction) are critical.
 Image: Tsunami environmental impact

Combined with the issue of waste is that of hazardous materials and toxic substances that can be inadvertently
mixed up with ordinary debris. These include asbestos, oil fuel, and other industrial raw materials and
chemicals. Rapid clean-up of affected areas can result in inappropriate disposal methods, including air burning
and open dumping, leading to secondary impacts on the environment.
Contamination of soil and water is the second key environmental impact of a tsunami. Salination of water
bodies such as rivers, wells, inland lakes, and groundwater aquifers can occur in most cases. This also affects
the soil fertility of agricultural lands, due to salination and debris contamination, which will affect yields in the
medium and long term. Sewage, septic tanks and toilets are damaged contaminating the water supply.
Last but not least, there may be radiation resulting from damage to nuclear plants, as it happened in Japan in
March 2011. Since radiation exists for a long time, it has the capacity to inflict damage upon anything exposed
to it. Radiation is most dangerous to animals and humans causing destruction as molecules loose their
electrons. The damage caused by radiation to the DNA structure determines birth defects, cancers even death.

Cost
Massive costs hit communities and nations when a tsunami happens. Victims and survivors of the tsunami
need immediate help from rescue teams.
Governments around the world may help with the cost of bringing aid to devastated areas. National
institutions, the United Nations, other international organizations, community groups and NGOs , and a variety
of other entities come together to provide different kinds of aid and services. There might also be appeals and
donations from people who have seen pictures of the area in the media.
Reconstruction and clean up after a tsunami is a huge cost problem. Infrastructure must be replaced, unsafe
buildings demolished and rubbish cleared. Loss of income in the local economy and future losses from the
destruction of infrastructure will be a problem for some time to come.
The total financial cost of the tsunami could be millions or even billions of dollars of damage to coastal
structures and habitats. It is difficult to put an exact figure on the monetary cost but the cost may represent an
important share of a nations GDP.
 Image: Rescue teams carry away a man injured by a tsunami

Psychological effects
Victims of tsunami events often suffer psychological problems which can last for days, years or an entire
lifetime. Survivors of the Sri Lankan tsunami of December 2004 were found to have PTSD (post traumatic
stress disorder) when examined by the World Health Organization (WHO): 14% to 39% of these were
children, 40% of adolescents and 20% of mothers of these adolescents were found to have PTSD 4 months
after the tsunami.
These people were suffering from grief and depression as their homes, businesses and loved ones were taken
from them. Many still had PTSD. Periliya Village counts 2,000 dead and 400 families became homeless. These
people were found to still have psychological problems 2 years after the tsunami.

How Will Global Warming Change Earth?

The impact of increased surface temperatures is significant in itself. But global warming will
have additional, far-reaching effects on the planet. Warming modifies rainfall patterns, amplifies
coastal erosion, lengthens the growing season in some regions, melts ice caps and glaciers, and
alters the ranges of some infectious diseases. Some of these changes are already occurring.
Global warming will shift major climate patterns, possibly prolonging and intensifying the
current drought in the U.S. Southwest. The white ring of bleached rock on the once-red cliffs
that hold Lake Powell indicate the drop in water level over the past decadethe result of
repeated winters with low snowfall. (Photograph 2006 Tigresblanco.)

Changing Weather

For most places, global warming will result in more frequent hot days and fewer cool days, with
the greatest warming occurring over land. Longer, more intense heat waves will become more
common. Storms, floods, and droughts will generally be more severe as precipitation patterns
change. Hurricanes may increase in intensity due to warmer ocean surface temperatures.
Apart from driving temperatures up, global warming is likely to cause bigger, more destructive
storms, leading to an overall increase in precipitation. With some exceptions, the tropics will
likely receive less rain (orange) as the planet warms, while the polar regions will receive more
precipitation (green). White areas indicate that fewer than two-thirds of the climate models
agreed on how precipitation will change. Stippled areas reveal where more than 90 percent of
the models agreed. (2007 IPCC WG1 AR-4.)

It is impossible to pin any single unusual weather event on global warming, but emerging
evidence suggests that global warming is already influencing the weather. Heat waves,
droughts, and intense rain events have increased in frequency during the last 50 years, and
human-induced global warming more likely than not contributed to the trend.

Rising Sea Levels

The weather isnt the only thing global warming will impact: rising sea levels will erode coasts
and cause more frequent coastal flooding. Some island nations will disappear. The problem is
serious because up to 10 percent of the worlds population lives in vulnerable areas less than
10 meters (about 30 feet) above sea level.

Between 1870 and 2000, the sea level increased by 1.7 millimeters per year on average, for a
total sea level rise of 221 millimeters (0.7 feet or 8.7 inches). And the rate of sea level rise is
accelerating. Since 1993, NASA satellites have shown that sea levels are rising more quickly,
about 3 millimeters per year, for a total sea level rise of 48 millimeters (0.16 feet or 1.89
inches) between 1993 and 2009.

Sea levels crept up about 20 centimeters (7.9 inches) during the twentieth century. Sea levels
are predicted to go up between 18 and 59 cm (7.1 and 23 inches) over the next century, though
the increase could be greater if ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica melt more quickly than
predicted. Higher sea levels will erode coastlines and cause more frequent flooding. (Graph
2007 Robert Rohde.)

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that sea levels will rise
between 0.18 and 0.59 meters (0.59 to 1.9 feet) by 2099 as warming sea water expands, and
mountain and polar glaciers melt. These sea level change predictions may be underestimates,
however, because they do not account for any increases in the rate at which the worlds major
ice sheets are melting. As temperatures rise, ice will melt more quickly. Satellite measurements
reveal that the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets are shedding about 125 billion tons of
ice per yearenough to raise sea levels by 0.35 millimeters (0.01 inches) per year. If the
melting accelerates, the increase in sea level could be significantly higher.

Impacting Ecosystems

More importantly, perhaps, global warming is already putting pressure on ecosystems, the
plants and animals that co-exist in a particular climate zone, both on land and in the ocean.
Warmer temperatures have already shifted the growing season in many parts of the globe. The
growing season in parts of the Northern Hemisphere became two weeks longer in the second
half of the 20th century. Spring is coming earlier in both hemispheres.
This change in the growing season affects the broader ecosystem. Migrating animals have to
start seeking food sources earlier. The shift in seasons may already be causing the lifecycles of
pollinators, like bees, to be out of synch with flowering plants and trees. This mismatch can
limit the ability of both pollinators and plants to survive and reproduce, which would reduce
food availability throughout the food chain.

See Buzzing About Climate Change to read more about how the lifecycle of bees is synched
with flowering plants.

Warmer temperatures also extend the growing season. This means that plants need more water
to keep growing throughout the season or they will dry out, increasing the risk of failed crops
and wildfires. Once the growing season ends, shorter, milder winters fail to kill dormant
insects, increasing the risk of large, damaging infestations in subsequent seasons.

In some ecosystems, maximum daily temperatures might climb beyond the tolerance of
indigenous plant or animal. To survive the extreme temperatures, both marine and land-based
plants and animals have started to migrate towards the poles. Those species, and in some
cases, entire ecosystems, that cannot quickly migrate or adapt, face extinction. The IPCC
estimates that 20-30 percent of plant and animal species will be at risk of extinction if
temperatures climb more than 1.5 to 2.5C.

Impacting People

The changes to weather and ecosystems will also affect people more directly. Hardest hit will be
those living in low-lying coastal areas, and residents of poorer countries who do not have the
resources to adapt to changes in temperature extremes and water resources. As tropical
temperature zones expand, the reach of some infectious diseases, such as malaria, will change.
More intense rains and hurricanes and rising sea levels will lead to more severe flooding and
potential loss of property and life.
One inevitable consequence of global warming is sea-level rise. In the face of higher sea levels
and more intense storms, coastal communities face greater risk of rapid beach erosion from
destructive storms like the intense noreaster of April 2007 that caused this damage.
(Photograph 2007 metimbers2000.)

Hotter summers and more frequent fires will lead to more cases of heat stroke and deaths, and
to higher levels of near-surface ozone and smoke, which would cause more code red air
quality days. Intense droughts can lead to an increase in malnutrition. On a longer time scale,
fresh water will become scarcer, especially during the summer, as mountain glaciers disappear,
particularly in Asia and parts of North America.

On the flip side, there could be winners in a few places. For example, as long as the rise in
global average temperature stays below 3 degrees Celsius, some models predict that global
food production could increase because of the longer growing season at mid- to high-latitudes,
provided adequate water resources are available. The same small change in temperature,
however, would reduce food production at lower latitudes, where many countries already face
food shortages. On balance, most research suggests that the negative impacts of a changing
climate far outweigh the positive impacts. Current civilizationagriculture and population
distributionhas developed based on the current climate. The more the climate changes, and
the more rapidly it changes, the greater the cost of adaptation.

Ultimately, global warming will impact life on Earth in many ways, but the extent of the change
is largely up to us. Scientists have shown that human emissions of greenhouse gases are
pushing global temperatures up, and many aspects of climate are responding to the warming in
the way that scientists predicted they would. This offers hope. Since people are causing global
warming, people can mitigate global warming, if they act in time. Greenhouse gases are long-
lived, so the planet will continue to warm and changes will continue to happen far into the
future, but the degree to which global warming changes life on Earth depends on our decisions
now.

Cuba Wakes Up to Costs of Climate

Change Effects
By Ivet Gonzlez Reprint | | Print | Send by email |En espaol
 Waves bursting over the Malecn seawall and promenade in Havana. Credit: Jorge Luis Baos/IPS

HAVANA, Jun 17 2013 (IPS) - How much is a species worth? What is the price tag on the services provided by a
river or a forest? These are the questions biologist Mara Elena Perdomo is asking to encourage Cubans to take
account of environmental costs, which may apparently be incorporated in the present economic reforms.

Climate change effects reduce biodiversity, cause a decline in quality of life, change landscapes and have enormous
social consequences. But what does all this mean in economic terms? asks Perdomo, a researcher at the Centre for
Environmental Studies and Services in Villa Clara, 268 kilometres from Havana.

In an interview with IPS, she said that this kind of analysis should be given more attention when decisions are being
made about how to protect the environment, and when planning ecological projects, defining environmental education
messages and programmes and planning construction or other works that could harm vulnerable areas.

One way of determining the value of a service, resource or ecosystem is to consider the cost of replacing it if it were
not available, she said. What losses are caused by a tropical cyclone or a prolonged drought? How much would it
cost to take clean water to arable lands left without water sources?

Related IPS Articles

Greening Havana

Spreading Climate Literacy in Cuba

ENVIRONMENT-CUBA: 'Forest Ranger' Looks After Havana's Trees

In Cuba, as in other Caribbean countries, the effects of global warming will have the greatest impact on coastal
areas, although the whole island will be increasingly affected by extreme weather events, such as heat waves,
prolonged periods of drought and heavy rains. Potable water and fertile land will be scarcer and biodiversity will be
diminished.

Some 80 coastal settlements are likely to be affected and 15 could disappear by 2050 if the Cuban government does
not implement adaptation measures in response to the prediction that, by then, 2.32 percent of the national territory
will be permanently under water, according to the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment.

Because of this situation, conservation and remediation of natural areas that can contribute to mitigating temperature
rise is another challenge for Cubas 11.2 million people and its economy, which is struggling to emerge from a severe
crisis that has lasted over 20 years.

The strategic programme of economic and social reforms begun in 2008 by the government of President Ral Castro
includes addressing environmental problems. This year, that approach became more visible as using renewable
sources of energy, which are much less polluting than fossil fuels, became a higher priority.

The authorities are directing investments so that by 2030 about 10 percent of the energy consumed in the country will
come from wind, sun, water and other renewable sources, it was announced this month.

The ministry has also created an environmental research and management macro-project to consider climate change
vulnerability and risk assessment in coastal zones from 2050 to 2100, which includes recommendations for
adaptation measures.

Often there is no reliable quantitative evaluation of natural resources, said Perdomo. Other problems that have been
identified, she added, are the lack of financing for remediation, lack of decision-making power in local communities,
and lack of financial support for environmental education.

A study published in 2012 by the Revista Cubana de Geografa, an online geographical journal, estimated the total
cost of restoring the vegetation along the banks of the river Guanabo, in the Cuban capital, at 825,500 dollars,
according to figures from Unidad Silvcola, a state forestry unit in Havana.

To remedy damage to the vegetation of the Guanabo river basin caused by human activity, the research study found
that forests, cuabal (dry-adapted thorny scrub growing on thin soil or bare rock) and mangroves would all have to be
restored, to allow natural regeneration to occur.

Replanting efforts would take until 2022, says the study titled Valoracin econmica de las afectaciones ambientales
al recurso bosque en la franja hidrorreguladora de la corriente principal del ro Guanabo, La Habana, Cuba (Cost of
environmental damage to forest resources in the hydro-regulating zones along the main course of the Guanabo river,
Havana, Cuba).

This area has been subjected to indiscriminate exploitation for years, with the result that forests and thickets have
been fragmented and destroyed, river channels eroded and bodies of water polluted with sediments, among other
effects, the study says. If nothing is done, the costs of remediation will increase, the authors warn.

The National Statistics Office reported that Cuba spent 37 million dollars more on environmental protection in 2012
than in the previous year. However, expenditure on river basins of national interest fell by 81,000 dollars in the same
period.
The report Social Panorama of Latin America 2012 by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC) says that the environment was one of the most neglected areas in the region over the last two
decades. On average, the regions countries devoted 0.2 percent of public expenditure to environmental actions,
sanitation, housing and drinking water during that period.

Communities should be mitigating factors, not agents that accelerate climate change, Sandra Ribalta, the
coordinator of Ando Reforestando, a community reforestation and awareness-raising project in Havana, told IPS.
Our population sees climate change as something that will happen far in the future, or simply isnt aware of it as a
problem.

Alba Camejo, an environmental communicator, told IPS that things are being done, but information about them
needs to be circulated more widely.

That is why she started rbol de Vida (Tree of Life), a way of spreading the word about environmental actions using a
web site and a subscriber list of more than 10,000 email addresses.

Torrential rains from tropical storm Andrea buffeted the western province of Pinar del Ro in the first few days of June,
pouring down almost twice the provinces average rainfall for the month. Local authorities are now taking stock of the
environmental damage and agricultural and housing losses left in its wake.

According to preliminary reports, the state Provincial Environmental Unit of Pinar del Ro identified damage to the
dunes of the Boca de Galafre beach. The local press was told that the downpours may also have caused
deforestation in certain locations, among other destructive effects.

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8 Ways Global Warming Is Already Changing the World

Natural Disasters: Top 10 U.S. Threats

Infographic: Storm Season! How, When & Where Hurricanes Form

Article:

Katrina-Like Storm Surges Could Become

Norm
Becky Oskin, OurAmazingPlanet Staff Writer

Date: 18 March 2013 Time: 02:52 PM ET

in Share 4
 New research shows that hurricane surges will
become more frequent in a warmer climate. This is an
illustration that suggests what could happen from the
combined effects of sea level rise and more powerful
storms.
CREDIT: Gordon Tarpley

View full size image

Last year's devastating flooding in New York City from Hurricane Sandy was the city's largest
storm surge on record. Though Hurricane Sandy was considered a 100-year-event a storm that
lashes a region only once a century a new study finds global warming could bring similar
destructive storm surges to the Gulf and East Coasts of the United States every other year before
2100.

Severe storms generate both high waves and storm surge, which can combine to erode beaches
and dunes and flood coastal communities. Storm surge is seawater pushed ahead of a storm,
mainly by strong winds. Onshore, the surge can rise several feet in just a few minutes. High
waves travel on top of the surge, and cresting waves raise the sea's height even more.
Looking at extreme events, which researchers called "Katrinas" after the 2005 hurricane that
flooded the Gulf Coast, a new model predicts Katrina-like storm surges will hit every other year
if the climate warms 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius).

That would be 10 times the rate seen since 1923, after which there has been a Katrina-magnitude
storm surge every 20 years, the study, published in the March 18 issue of the journal Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences,found.

In 2009, the world's nations agreed to try to limit climate change to a 2 C increase by 2100, but
recent studies show temperatures could rise 7.2 F (4 C) before the century ends.

But the tenfold increase in Katrina-like storm surges does not have to translate into a tenfold
increase in disasters, said Aslak Grinsted, a climate scientist at the University of Copenhagen in
Denmark and the lead study author. "Every Katrina-magnitude event is not necessarily going to
be a Katrina-magnitude disaster. It's all about planning smartly," he told OurAmazingPlanet.

Warmer seas spin stronger storms

Scientists know that warmer oceans will change how the Atlantic Ocean spawns hurricanes.
More heat means more energy, and many models predict global warming will bring bigger,
stronger storms, though the details between the model scenarios differ. But the models could be
biased by changes in hurricane observational methods, such as the switch to satellites from
planes and ships, which may impact records of wind speed and other storm data, Grinsted said.

Many studies have looked at how the frequency and size of hurricanes will change as global
warming raises ocean temperatures, but few have investigated their impact on the Atlantic coast.

Extreme storm surges like that caused by Hurricane Katrina (2005) could become more frequent
in a warmer climate.
CREDIT: Aslak Grinsted, Niels Bohr Institute

View full size image

To better assess which model does the best job of divining the future, Grinsted and his
colleagues constructed a record of storm surges from tide gauges along the Atlantic coast dating
back to 1923. "Big storm surges give me a new view of hurricane variability in the past,"
Grinsted said.
Grinsted weighed each statistical model according to how well they explained past extreme
storm surges. One way scientists test climate models is by seeing how well they predict the
weather in the past.

Of the competing models, the top performer was one of the simplest. It relied on regional sea
surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean hurricane birthing ground. The researchers also
created a new global "gridded" model, incorporating ocean temperatures around the world.
Grinsted said the top models agree roughly on the magnitude of the increase in storm surges,
giving him confidence in the results. [Hurricanes from Above: See Nature's Biggest Storms]

A 0.4 C warming corresponded to doubling of the frequency of extreme storm surges, the study
found. "With the global warming we have had during the 20th century, we have already crossed
the threshold where more than half of all 'Katrinas' are due to global warming," Grinsted said.

James Elsner, a climate scientist at the University of Florida, said he agrees with the study's main
finding, but thinks the modeling underestimates the effects of climate factors such as the El
Nio/ La Nia Southern Oscillation (ENSO) index, and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).
Studies have shown that the warm El Nio events mean fewer hurricanes in the Atlantic, while
the NAO influences storm tracks across the ocean basin.

"As the planet warms up and the oceans get warmer, the chances of stronger storms goes up,"
Elsner said. "I think it's an interesting exercise, but I think statistically, it's got some issues," he
told OurAmazingPlanet.

Storm surges and sea level rise

Grinsted is concerned about the combined effects of future storm surge flooding and sea level
rise, which adds to the base of the storm surge.

"I think what will be even more important is the background sea level rise, and that is something
that is very hard to model," he said.

Hurricane Sandy brought an 11.9-foot (3.6 meters) surge to southern Manhattan, plus a boost
from the high tide, creating a storm tide as high as 13.88 feet (4.2 m).

Hurricane Katrina caused storm surge flooding of 25 to 28 feet (7.6 to 8.5 m) above normal tide
level along portions of the Mississippi coast and 10 to 20 feet (3 to 6.1 m) above normal tide
levels along the southeastern Louisiana coast.