Reading through this issue of Oceanography, it will become
apparent that researchers in different disciplines see their
seamounts in quite different ways. The term seamount has been
defined many times (e.g., Menard, 1964; Wessel, 2001; Schmidt and
Schmincke, 2000; Pitcher et al., 2007; International Hydrographic
Organization, 2008; Wessel et al.,...
Lō`ihi Seamount defines the volcanically active, leading edge in the Hawaiian hotspot chain. It is located on the submarine flank of Mauna Loa, 30 km south of the island of Hawai`i. Lō`ihi’s summit is at 975-m water depth (Pisces Peak), and the seamount has a pronounced southern rift that extends...
Seamounts are ubiquitous features of the seafloor that form part of the fabric of oceanic crust. When a seamount enters a subduction zone, it has a major affect on forearc morphology, the uplift history of the island arc, and the structure of the downgoing slab. It is not known, however,...
Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability, characterized by the distinctive finite-amplitude billows it generates, is an important mechanism in the development of turbulence in the stratified interior of the ocean. In particular, it is often assumed that the onset of turbulence in internal waves begins in this way. Clear recognition of the importance...
Chemical and biological sensor technologies have advanced rapidly in the past five years. Sensors that require low power and operate for multiple years are now available for oxygen, nitrate, and a variety of bio-optional properties that serve as proxies for important components of the carbon cycle (e.g., particulate organic carbon)....
Various human activities, including fossil fuel combustion and forest clearing, emit about eight petagrams (or billion tons) of carbon in the form of CO2 into the atmosphere annually. The global ocean absorbs about two petagrams of CO2, and about a half of that amount is absorbed by the Southern Ocean...
A multispectral optical sensor collects data at select wavebands or channels. An example is the Sea-viewing Wide-Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) ocean color satellite, which measures eight wavebands between 402 and 885 nm (20-40 nm bandwidth with peaks centered around 412, 443, 490, 510, 555, 670, 765, and 865 nm). Optical oceanographers...
Internal waves are often observed to break close to the seafloor topography that generates them, or from which they scatter. This breaking is often spectacular, with turbulent structures observed hundreds of meters above the seafloor, and driving turbulence dissipations and mixing up to 10,000 times open-ocean levels. This article provides...
Since the end of the Cold War, the US Navy has had an increasing interest in continental shelves and slopes as
operational areas. To work in such areas
requires a good understanding of ocean
acoustics, coastal physical oceanography,
and, in the modern era, autonomous
underwater vehicle (AUV) operations.
Each area...
Marine renewable energy promises to assist in the effort to reduce
carbon emissions worldwide. As with any large-scale development in the marine
environment, however, it comes with uncertainty about potential environmental
impacts, most of which have not been adequately evaluated—in part because many of
the devices have yet to be...