Physical oceanography articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • Letter |

    The exchange of water between subtropical North Atlantic Deep Water and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is important, but poorly constrained. A subsurface acoustic image taken in the confluence region shows a prominent swirling structure, 500 m high and 10 km wide, that could be either a thermohaline intrusion or a localized and intermittent overturning event.

    • K. L. Sheen
    • , N. J. White
    •  & R. W. Hobbs

  • News & Views |

    Most volcanism on Earth takes place under water, yet little is known about submarine eruptions. Monitoring of two volcanic seamounts beneath the Pacific Ocean reveals the pulsed nature of their eruption cycles.

    • Neil Mitchell

  • Letter |

    For volcanoes at submarine rift zones, a direct link between seismicity, seafloor deformation and magma intrusion has not been demonstrated. Recordings from ocean-bottom hydrophones and bottom-pressure recorders map an increasing rate of seismicity at Axial Seamount, northeast Pacific, over several years before its eruption in April 2011.

    • R. P. Dziak
    • , J. H. Haxel
    •  & D. A. Butterfield

  • News & Views |

    Of the West Antarctic ice shelves, those in the Amundsen Sea sector have given the most cause for concern. Ocean modelling of the Weddell Sea region, together with a detailed survey of the ice bed morphology, indicates that this region, too, may change soon.

    • Angelika Humbert

  • Editorial |

    The mid-ocean ridges mark the lines along which the Earth is turning itself inside out through the process of plate tectonics. Advances in technology are helping to reveal the intricate details of the magma systems that feed the rifting process.

  • Research Highlights |

    • Tamara Goldin

  • News & Views |

    The Arctic Ocean has become less saline, perhaps in response to climate change. Satellite and in situ observations reveal changes in the regional wind patterns that have re-routed freshwater and prevented it from leaving the Arctic Ocean in the past decades.

    • Cecilie Mauritzen

  • Letter |

    Global climate change results from a small yet persistent imbalance between the amount of sunlight absorbed by the Earth and the thermal radiation emitted back to space. A revised analysis of measured changes in the net radiation imbalance at the top of the atmosphere, and the ocean heat content to a depth of 1,800 m, suggests that these two sets of observations are consistent within error margins.

    • Norman G. Loeb
    • , John M. Lyman
    •  & Graeme L. Stephens

  • Letter |

    An increasing amount of freshwater has been stored in the Arctic Ocean over the past few decades. Satellite measurements of sea surface height reveal a spin-up of the Beaufort Gyre in the western Arctic that is associated with changes in the wind field, and is estimated to have led to the additional storage of about 8,000 km3 of freshwater.

    • Katharine A. Giles
    • , Seymour W. Laxon
    •  & Sheldon Bacon

  • News & Views |

    Phytoplankton form the base of the marine food web, but their growth in nutrient-depleted surface waters has remained a puzzle. Two complementary studies suggest that ocean eddies help to control phytoplankton growth and distribution in unexpected ways.

    • Richard G. Williams

  • Article |

    The largest dense-water plume feeding the lower limb of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation from the Nordic seas comes from Denmark Strait overflow water. Measurements of hydrography and water velocity north of Iceland and ocean model simulations indicate that a significant part of this water is supplied by the North Icelandic Jet.

    • Kjetil Våge
    • , Robert S. Pickart
    •  & Tor Eldevik

  • Letter |

    Mixing in the Southern Ocean plays an important part in large-scale ocean circulation and in climate. An analysis of high-resolution hydrographic profiles from the Argo float programme reveals that the seasonal cycle of mixing in the Southern Ocean is controlled by seasonal variations in the wind stress, in particular over flat topography.

    • Lixin Wu
    • , Zhao Jing
    •  & Martin Visbeck

  • Letter |

    Trace elements and their isotopes have been explored as tracers for the movement of water masses. Measurements of the high-field-strength elements Zr, Hf, Nb and Ta along two meridional sections of the Pacific Ocean suggest higher ratios of Zr/Hf and Nb/Ta than expected, suggesting that these ratios will be useful for tracking water masses.

    • M. Lutfi Firdaus
    • , Tomoharu Minami
    •  & Yoshiki Sohrin

  • Article |

    Submarine melting has been suggested as a trigger for the widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers in Greenland. An analysis of oceanographic data from the fjord off Helheim Glacier, Greenland, suggests the presence of light Arctic and dense Atlantic waters in the fjord and that the melting circulation is more complex than thought.

    • Fiammetta Straneo
    • , Ruth G. Curry
    •  & Leigh A. Stearns

  • Progress Article |

    Hydrothermal vents in the sea floor release large volumes of hot, metal-rich fluids into the deep ocean. Mounting evidence suggests that organic compounds bind to and stabilize metals in hydrothermal fluids, thereby increasing metal flux to the open ocean.

    • Sylvia G. Sander
    •  & Andrea Koschinsky

  • News & Views |

    Unusual wind patterns and the albedo feedback effect played crucial roles in the rapid reduction of Arctic sea-ice cover in recent years. Evidence is now building that a warmer ocean has also contributed to the thinning of Arctic ice.

    • Eddy Carmack
    •  & Humfrey Melling

  • Commentary |

    Sea-level rise is progressively changing coastlines. The legal implications for the seaward boundaries between neighbouring coastal states are neither straightforward nor foreseeable.

    • Katherine J. Houghton
    • , Athanasios T. Vafeidis
    •  & Alexander Proelss

  • Letter |

    Skilful predictions of hurricane frequency have been limited to lead times of one season, and evidence for external forcing has been indirect. Simulations with nine variants of one global climate model show an influence of external forcing on hurricane frequency, and predictability on multi-year timescales.

    • Doug M. Smith
    • , Rosie Eade
    •  & Adam A. Scaife

  • Letter |

    Decadal fluctuations in the North Pacific Ocean and overlying atmosphere significantly affect the weather and climate of North America and Eurasia. An ensemble of simulations with a coupled ocean–atmosphere model reveals a link between these decadal oscillations and central Pacific El Niño events.

    • E. Di Lorenzo
    • , K. M. Cobb
    •  & D. J. Vimont

  • News & Views |

    The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation delivers warmth to high latitudes and carbon to depth. Historical temperature and salinity records call into question the traditional view that these waters form a single coherent conveyer system of currents.

    • Agatha M. de Boer

  • Letter |

    Instrumental records, proxy data and climate modelling show that multidecadal variability is a dominant feature of North Atlantic sea-surface temperature variations. Simulations with a coupled climate model suggest that the timing of this variability is determined mainly by external forcing, for example from volcanic eruption or solar forcing.

    • Odd Helge Otterå
    • , Mats Bentsen
    •  & Lingling Suo

  • Article |

    Hydrographic properties of the North Atlantic Ocean have changed significantly over the past decades. A combination of changes in seawater density, calculated from observed properties of sea water and a numerical ocean model, reveals that the strength of the meridional overturning circulation has changed in different directions in the subpolar and subtropical basins, respectively.

    • M. Susan Lozier
    • , Vassil Roussenov
    •  & Richard G. Williams

  • Letter |

    Ocean eddies generated through instability of the mean flow are a vital component of the energy budget of the global ocean. Modelling combined with satellite altimetry data suggests that the energy from westward-propagating eddies is scattered and eventually dispersed when they reach the western boundary of an ocean basin.

    • Xiaoming Zhai
    • , Helen L. Johnson
    •  & David P. Marshall

  • Letter |

    Dense water that formed over the Antarctic continental shelf spreads throughout the global ocean as Antarctic Bottom Water. Observations over eight years reveal a strong seasonal cycle in the flow of Weddell Sea bottom water northwards that is linked to winds over the western margin of the Weddell Sea.

    • Arnold L. Gordon
    • , Bruce Huber
    •  & Martin Visbeck

  • Letter |

    Sea-level rise is not globally uniform. A combination of observations and climate-model simulations reveals a pattern of sea-level changes in the Indian Ocean, with a decrease in the southern tropical Indian Ocean and a rise elsewhere, that can be attributed to changes in the atmospheric overturning circulation.

    • Weiqing Han
    • , Gerald A. Meehl
    •  & Stephen Yeager

  • News & Views |

    The formation and flow of deep water around Antarctica contributes to the global ocean circulation. New measurements report the strongest flow speeds recorded so far in a current below 3,000 m depth, and help to document a pathway for Antarctic Bottom Water.

    • Alejandro H. Orsi

  • Letter |

    Deep western boundary currents east of the Antarctic Peninsula and the Kerguelen plateau are important pathways for transporting deep Antarctic water masses to the global ocean. An array of moored current meters, used to quantify the water transport in this system, reveals a flow that is stronger than any measured in a deep western boundary current at similar depths so far.

    • Y. Fukamachi
    • , S. R. Rintoul
    •  & M. Wakatsuchi

  • News & Views |

    The surface layer of the Southern Ocean connects the atmosphere with the deep subtropical ocean. Ocean observations reveal that the thickness of this layer — important for biological productivity — is controlled by the strength and position of the southern circumpolar winds.

    • Sarah Gille

  • Article |

    Interactions between the atmosphere and ocean are mediated by the mixed layer at the ocean surface. Analyses of ocean temperature and salinity data from Argo floats show that changes in the Southern Annular Mode, including recent and projected trends attributed to human activity, drive variations in mixed-layer depth in the Southern Ocean.

    • J. B. Sallée
    • , K. G. Speer
    •  & S. R. Rintoul

  • Letter |

    Anomalies of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean Dipole often occur simultaneously. An analysis of observations and models suggests that, in addition, the negative phase of the Indian Ocean Dipole tends to occur 14 months before an El Niño event, with implications for El Niño predictability.

    • Takeshi Izumo
    • , Jérôme Vialard
    •  & Toshio Yamagata

  • Letter |

    Widespread glacier acceleration has been observed in Greenland in the past few years. Oceanographic observations taken in summer 2008 show that ocean waters melted a substantial fraction of ice along the calving fronts of three West Greenland glaciers, indicating that submarine melting has a profound influence on grounding-line stability.

    • Eric Rignot
    • , Michele Koppes
    •  & Isabella Velicogna

  • Letter |

    Throughout the most recent glacial period sea level fluctuated by 20–30 m. Climate model simulations indicate that the barrier to water exchange between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans posed by the Bering Strait during low sea levels could have been instrumental in generating these fluctuations.

    • Aixue Hu
    • , Gerald A. Meehl
    •  & Nan Rosenbloom

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