Earth-Ocean system

To understand the role of the ocean in global environmental change and to progress oceanography in developing countries the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) will be leading a working group aiming to build the world’s largest database on carbon flux measurements from optical sensors.

Tsunamis triggered by the partial collapse of the Caribbean Monserrat volcano 13,000 years ago, would have been much smaller than previously thought, according to research published soon in Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems.

Scientists based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton have discovered a previously unrecognised volcanic process, similar to one that is used in chocolate manufacturing, which gives important new insights into the dynamics of volcanic eruptions.

University of Southampton researchers based the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, with colleagues from Bristol and Penn State Universities, have produced the first image of the magma chamber (body of molten rock) beneath the active Soufrière Hills Volcano on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean.

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.

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.

A research team including scientists from the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, has uncovered the likely cause of repeated episodes of natural global warming during the ancient past.