But scientists say a warming world is throwing off this balance. As Arctic ice melts, freshwater enters the North Atlantic — making the ocean water less dense, so it is less likely to sink. As a ...

The southern Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia is becoming less salty at an astonishing rate, largely due to ...

Understanding how the oceans behaved in the past — especially during extremely cold periods — is crucial for testing the models used to project future climate change. The peak of the last ice age, the ...

Discover how the Coriolis effect shapes weather patterns across the globe, including ocean currents and a hurricane’s spin. The coriolis effect influences everything from trade winds to storms.

While we can’t usually observe coastal currents from the shoreline, water in the oceans of the world is in constant motion. Surface currents are driven by wind blowing across the sea surface, and ...

During the last ice age, the Atlantic Ocean's powerful current system remained active and continued to transport warm, salty water from the tropics to the North Atlantic despite extensive ice cover ...

A powerful milestone for our shared ocean is about to be achieved. The United Nations’ High Seas Treaty will go into effect on Jan. 17 after two decades of negotiations, then ratification by more than ...

When oily plastic and glass, as well as rubber, washed onto Florida beaches in 2020, a community group shared the mystery online, attracting scientists’ attention. Working together, they linked the ...

Chris Mooney is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a CNN Climate contributor. He is currently a professor of practice in the Environmental Institute at the University of Virginia. Bathtubs and ...