Bright pink ocean and rare wildflower super bloom — February’s best science images

Candyfloss waves. The sea was turned temporarily pink at a beach in San Diego, California, by researchers at the nearby Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who added a non-toxic pink dye to the water to study how plumes of fresh water flowing out into the sea interact with breaking waves. “It’s a really unique experiment,” said Sarah Giddings, a coastal oceanographer at Scripps, in a press statement. “We will combine results from this experiment with an older field study and computer models that will allow us to make progress on understanding how these plumes spread.”

Deer danger. A pile of logs is reduced to glowing embers by a wildfire in Santa Juana in Chile. Out-of-control forest fires during Feburary in the region have led to dozens of deaths, destroyed homes and injured wildlife including woodland marsupials and pudus — the world’s smallest deer. Authorities have warned that persistent hot, dry weather could exacerbate the blazes.

No croak. The newly discovered Ukaguru spiny-throated reed frog (Hyperolius ukaguruensis) does not croak, ribbit or make any other sounds to communicate to its froggy friends. As its name suggests, the silent frog has small spines on the outside of its throat. “The male frogs don’t call like most other frogs do,” said Lucinda Lawson, a conservation biologist at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. “We think they may use the spines as something like Braille for species recognition.” Researchers found the voiceless amphibian in Tanzania’s Ukaguru mountains while searching for a different species of frog — the beautiful tree toad (Churamiti maridadi), which is feared to be extinct.

Super bloom. California poppies (Eschscholzia californica) and other wildflowers carpet the slopes of Walker Canyon, near Lake Elsinore, California, in a spectacular event known as a super bloom. These are fairly rare because they can happen only under specific conditions — heavy winter rainfall after several years of drought, which kill off grasses and weeds that take up nutrients. The most recent super bloom in Walker Canyon happened in 2019.

A very old boy. Thirty-year-old Bobi has been named the world’s oldest-ever dog. He is a purebred rafeiro do Alentejo, a Portuguese breed that normally has a lifespan of 12–14 years. Bobi lives in Portugal with his owners, who attribute his long life to a diet of unseasoned human food, having space to roam and living in a calm, peaceful environment.

Search for survivors. A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Turkey and parts of Syria on 6 February. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives, and the quake and its aftershocks have flattened buildings and sent rescuers digging through debris to find survivors. In northwest Syria, health systems — already weakened by more than a decade of war — have been overwhelmed with thousands of injured people. Outside urban areas, the disaster’s scars on the landscape can be seen — in Tepehan, Turkey, a 50-metre-deep fissure now rips through the middle of an olive grove, dividing it in two. Researchers say people need to brace themselves for yet more quakes and aftershocks, as well as deteriorating weather.