Mantle convection stirs and homogenizes the subducted oceanic lithosphere with the convecting mantle. Convective mixing stretches and thins the subducted oceanic crust from an original thickness of 6 km to a thickness of 2 cm or less. The thinned, subducted oceanic crust can be observed as pyroxenite bands in high-temperature peridotite massifs. On the scale of centimeters, the bands are destro...

There is no theoretical underpinning that successfully explains how turbulent mixing is fed by wave breaking associated with nonlinear wave-wave interactions in the background oceanic internal wavefield. We address this conundrum using one-dimensional ray tracing simulations to investigate interactions between high frequency internal waves and inertial oscillations in the extreme scale separate...

[1] The impact of the differences in the oceanic heat uptake and storage on the transient response to changes in radiative forcing is investigated using two newly developed coupled atmosphere-ocean models. In spite of its larger equilibrium climate sensitivity, one model (CM2.1) has smaller transient globally averaged surface air temperature (SAT) response than is found in the second model (CM2...

Oceanic crust is a massive potential habitat for microbial life on Earth, yet our understanding of this ecosystem is limited due to difficulty in access. In particular, measurements of rates of microbial activity are sparse. We used stable carbon isotope incubations of crustal samples, coupled with functional gene analyses, to examine the potential for carbon fixation on oceanic crust. Both sea...

[1] We explore possible models for the seismological signature of the oceanic lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB) using the latest mineral-physics observations. The key features that need to be explained by any viable model include (1) a sharp (<20 km width) and a large (5–10%) velocity drop, (2) LAB depth at ~70 km in the old oceanic upper mantle, and (3) an age-dependent LAB depth in the...

[1] Tropical instability waves (TIWs), prevailing in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, interact with the lowfrequency oceanic flow. It is known that TIWs act as negative feedback to ENSO through a thermal process. In this study, we examine the dynamical eddy feedback of TIWs. We show that in terms of physical processes, the dynamical TIW feedback is very similar to the atmospheric synop...

Viscous and viscoelastic models for a subduction zone with a faulted lithosphere and internal buoyancy can self-consistently and simultaneously predict long-wavelength geoid highs over slabs, short-wavelength gravity lows over trenches, trench-forebulge morphology, and explain the high apparent strength of oceanic lithosphere in trench environments. The models use two different free-surface for...

The seasonal and spatial dynamics of two groups of macroalgae, drift algae and rhizophytes, commonly found in tropical seagrass meadows were studied. The aim of this study was to provide insight into how freshwater discharges may be altering seagrass-dominated nearshore tropical habitats. Species composition, biomass, and percent cover of macroalgae were collected at six Thalassia testudinum Kö...

Patterns of sea surface temperature (SST) variability on interannual and longer timescales result from a combination of atmospheric and oceanic processes. These SST anomaly patterns may be due to intrinsic modes of atmospheric circulation variability that imprint themselves upon the SST field mainly via surface energy fluxes. Examples include SST fluctuations in the Southern Ocean associated wi...

AFFILIATIONS: DABBERDT—Vaisala, Boulder, Colorado; CARROLL— University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan; BAUMGARDNER— Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico; CARMICHAEL—University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; COHEN— University of California—Berkeley, Berkeley, California; DYE— Sonoma Technology Inc., Petaluma, California; ELLIS—Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermor...