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Oceanography

A group of Tanzanians wearing bright colorful clothes ride in a boat.

Nearly swallowed by the sea, a small island in Tanzania fights against climate change

Climate Change

First, the encroaching sea started eating away at homes and killing crops on the small island of Kisiwa Panza. Then the rising tides began bringing up the dead.

the lush Antarctic seafloor

Mapping the colorful and diverse creatures of the Antarctic seas

Elkhorn coral is one of the main varieties of coral that workers on the northern coast of Puerto Rico have been able to restore following damage done by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Local NGOs repair Puerto Rico’s coral reefs in Maria’s aftermath

Science
Growing high tides have turned this photo — taken from Pompano Beach, Florida, after Hurricane Sandy in 2012 — into a regular occurrence along the U.S. coastlines.

New report forecasts a troubling picture of rising tides, frequent flooding on coasts

Climate Change
Snow is blown off of the calving front off of Thurston Island in western Antarctica in this photo, taken in November 2014. New findings show the western side of Antarctica to be more vulnerable to warming oceans — and increased ice loss — than first thoug

A scientist’s response to Antarctic ice loss: ‘We can act.’

A bird eats dead fish in the area where thousands of dead fish washed up on Abangaritos beach in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Feb. 16, 2017.

As oceans suffocate, dead zones grow

Environment

A new analysis by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center shows that oceans are suffocating as the number of dead zones is dramatically increasing.

Company making detergent bottles out of ocean plastic

Environment

The Pacific Ocean is filling with discarded plastic. One company wants to use that plastic to create recycled bottles.

Greenland's Sermilik fjord is choked with huge icebergs from one of the island's biggest glaciers. But climate researchers working in the fjord and on the Helheim glacier are looking for tiny clues in hopes of getting a better handle on how cliamte change

Looking small for big answers in Greenland

Environment

Scientists working in Greenland are looking for tiny clues to help fill in the big picture about the fate of the island’s giant ice pack. They’re using cutting edge technology to track minute changes that could help predict what a warmer future might hold for Greenland and the rest of the world.

Dark rock above the Helheim glacier in southeastern Greenland marks its former level, before a sudden and dramatic retreat of hit many Greenland glaciers a decade ago. Scientists working on the Helheim and the fjord it drains into are looking for clues to

In Greenland, a climate change mystery with clues written in water and stone

Environment

About a decade ago, several of Greenland’s biggest glaciers suddenly began melting. A decade later, two groups of scientists are trying to unlock the secrets behind a scientific mystery story with potentially big consequences for the future of the island’s rapidly-melting ice sheet.

Scientists holds the arms of a colossal squid as they examine the squid at a national museum facility in Wellington, New Zealand.

A rare colossal squid was dissected in New Zealand — and you can watch it on YouTube

Science

Last summer in the southern hemisphere, a fishing vessel in the Antarctic Ocean pulled up a rare creature — a 770-pound colossal squid. Only one other such animal had been pulled up intact before, surprisingly, by the same vessel. It is thought that the giant marine beast might be the origin of legends of undersea monsters. Scientists in New Zealand froze it to preserve it and just defrosted and dissected it.

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