Recent Sinking of Ocean Level

Effects of Ocean Acidification on the Ballast of Surface Aggregates Sinking through the Twilight Zone

The dissolution of CaCO(3) is one of the ways ocean acidification can, potentially, greatly affect the ballast of aggregates. A diminution of the ballast could reduce the settling speed of aggregates, resulting in a change in the carbon flux to the deep sea. This would mean lower amounts of more refractory organic matter reaching the ocean floor. This work aimed to determine the effect of ocean...

Recent cooling of the upper ocean

[1] We observe a net loss of 3.2 (±1.1) 10 J of heat from the upper ocean between 2003 and 2005. Using a broad array of in situ ocean measurements, we present annual estimates of global upper-ocean heat content anomaly from 1993 through 2005. Including the recent downturn, the average warming rate for the entire 13-year period is 0.33 ± 0.23 W/m (of the Earth’s total surface area). A new estima...

Attenuation of sinking particulate organic carbon flux through the mesopelagic ocean.

The biological carbon pump, which transports particulate organic carbon (POC) from the surface to the deep ocean, plays an important role in regulating atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. We know very little about geographical variability in the remineralization depth of this sinking material and less about what controls such variability. Here we present previously unpublished prof...

Sinking the Lunar Magma Ocean: New Evidence from Meteorites and the Return of Serial Magmatism

Current understanding of lunar evolution is built on the Lunar Magma Ocean (LMO) hypothesis, which is based on the returned Apollo samples of ferroan anorthosites and the assumption that they are globally distributed. However, compositions of anorthositic clasts in lunar meteorites are inconsistent with a global LMO, and more consistent with crustal anorthosites forming from serial emplacement ...

Bacterial vs . zooplankton control of sinking particle flux in the ocean ’ s twilight zone 1 2