School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES)

Dating an ancient episode of severe global warming

Nordenskiöldfjellet sampling location (the distant hillside) beyond Longyear Glacier, Spitsbergen

Using sophisticated methods of dating rocks, a team including University of Southampton researchers based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, have pinned down the timing of the start of an episode of an ancient global warming known as the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), with implications for the triggering mechanism.

RRS Discovery cruise 366: 8 June 2011

D366

Today has been a red-letter day in the cruise calendar, with two major activities starting up. Through the first half of the night the ship steamed further north towards the Outer Hebrides, in the weather forecast area “Hebrides”, unsurprisingly. Eventually we arrived at our target site close to the islands of Mingulay and Barra.

Cruise to investigate impacts of ocean acidification

Cruise map

The UK research vessel RRS Discovery left Liverpool yesterday on the first research cruise specifically to study ocean acidification in European waters. Twenty-four scientists from eight different UK institutes, led by the National Oceanography Centre Southampton, will carry out the science.

Carbon release and global warming now and in the ancient past

Core shed in Spitsbergen

The present rate of greenhouse carbon dioxide emissions through fossil fuel burning is higher than that associated with an ancient episode of severe global warming, according to new research. The findings are published online this week by the journal Nature Geoscience.

Shallow-water shrimp tolerates deep-sea conditions

Dr Sven Thatje (left) and his team

By studying the tolerance of marine invertebrates to a wide range of temperature and pressure, scientists are beginning to understand how shallow-water species could have colonised the ocean depths.

Callista’s Jurassic journey a success

Discover Oceanography at Lyme Regis

RV Callista, the University of Southampton’s inshore research vessel based at National Oceanography Centre, set sail for the Jurassic Coast in deepest Dorset last weekend (29 April to 1 May) as a star attraction in the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 2011.

Magmatic eruptions during continental breakup

Magmatic eruption

Recent research into the late stages of continental breakup, has shown that a final episode of plate stretching may be responsible for the eruption of large volumes of magma often seen at magmatic rifted margins.

Human impacts on the marine ecosystems of Antarctica

Seastars and giant ribbon worms at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, 32 metre depth (photo by R. B. Aronson)

A team of scientists in the United Kingdom and the United States has warned that the  native fauna and unique ecology of the Southern Ocean, the vast body of water that surrounds the Antarctic continent, is under threat from human activity. Their study is published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

To the Moho and beyond!

Drilling vessel Chikyu with Mt Fuji behind (JAMSTEC)

This spring, researchers including Professor Damon Teagle of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science, based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, will mark the 50-year anniversary of an ambitious project to drill to the mantle, by taking another significant step towards the same dream.

Final blog – UK Nitrogen Fixation-GEOTRACES Expedition 2011

Sunset

Professor Eric Achterberg, University of Southampton – Discovery 361

We have returned home this week from our UK GEOTRACES cruise in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The cruise (February 7-March 19, 2011) was part of our project funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council.