Ocean

Japan's solar potential isn't great, but it does sit right next to one of the world's most powerful ocean currents – so the country is searching for novel ways to bulk up its green energy generation in the form of giant deep ocean turbines.

An international team of scientists and cartographers has released the most detailed map of the seafloor of the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica. It covers 48 million km² and includes the deepest spot yet found in the region.

Following a number of technical setbacks, the Mayflower autonomous research vessel has successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean, clocking up 3,500 miles and arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 5.

It would cost a lot of money to send a boatload of marine scientists across the Atlantic Ocean, all of them conducting research along the way. That's where the Oceanus will come in, as plans call for it to do the job without any crew aboard.

Measuring ocean acidification is possible to an extent with sensors fitted to stationary buoys and vessels, but a newly fitted out deep-diving underwater drone promises to fill in the blanks in a big way.

While AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) are invaluable for gathering oceanographic data, they also tend to be fairly large and very expensive. The Hydrus offers a much smaller, less costly alternative, which still packs a lot of punch.

Harvesting sea urchins by hand can be tricky, often resulting in painful pokes through diving gloves. That's where the C Disc and the C Bud come in, as both systems vacuum urchins off the seabed and into a boat, net or shore-located container.

Whether you're a surfer, a sailor or simply a beachcomber, it's important to know the current cycle of the tide at your favorite beach. And while apps do provide that info, the Tidey tidal clock does so in a much easier-to-understand fashion.

Researchers are reporting a record-setting new example of a phenomenon known as a rogue wave, with a four-story-tall behemoth that occurred off the coast of Canada confirmed as the most extreme ever measured.

As useful as renewable energy sources are, they need to be backed up by storage systems. Ocean Battery is a new design for an energy storage system that functions a bit like a hydroelectric dam at the bottom of the sea.

Scientists have discovered fossils of a new species of aquatic reptile that may be the first giant animal that ever lived on Earth. Cymbospondylus youngorum is a new type of ichthyosaur dating back to the early stages of the Age of Dinosaurs.

A new type of storm has been discovered in the skies over the Indian Ocean. Named “atmospheric lakes,” these events are slow-moving pools of concentrated water vapor that can last for days and bring large amounts of rain to the surface below them.