Every year, the ocean quietly reminds us of the damage we have done. On Mediterranean beaches, locals often find strange, fibrous balls of dried seagrass known as “Neptune balls.” At first glance, they look harmless, like tumbleweed from the sea, but hidden inside them is something far more concerning: fragments of plastic waste. These mysterious…
Deep in the Pacific Ocean, scientists made a discovery that seemed almost pulled from the pages of a fantasy tale, a structure resembling a paved yellow brick road stretching across the seafloor. During a live-streamed mission by the Ocean Exploration Trust’s E/V Nautilus, researchers stumbled upon the bizarre sight at a depth of nearly 3,000…
NEW DELHI: In a first-of-its-kind expedition, India sent an aquanaut 5,002m deep into the ocean as part of the country’s Deep Ocean Mission, which involves development of crewed and uncrewed submersibles and deep-sea mining technologies, aimed at harnessing resources from the Exclusive Economic Zone and continental shelf.As part of Indo-French research collaborations, two Indian aquanauts…
NEW DELHI: In a landmark achievement, India has successfully sent its aquanauts to depths of over 5,000 metres in the North Atlantic Ocean.The mission marked a major step towards the country’s Deep Ocean Mission, also known as Samudrayaan. The feat comes just weeks after Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to reach the International Space…
Buried nearly a kilometre beneath the Atlantic seabed west of Guinea-Bissau lies a geological time-capsule: gigantic 117-million-year-old mud waves sculpted by dense, underwater avalanches. A new study published in Global and Planetary Change reveals that these ancient structures were formed when early Atlantic waters carved through the Earth’s crust, much earlier than previously believed. This…
In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have found thriving ecosystems over 31,000 feet beneath the northwest Pacific Ocean, home to the deepest chemosynthetic life ever recorded. An international expedition led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences uncovered alien-like organisms surviving in complete darkness and under immense pressure, revealing life’s remarkable adaptability. Published in Nature, the findings…
When a powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s eastern coast, it triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific, from Japan to the shores of Hawaii and Alaska. Cruise ships, often seen as floating fortresses of leisure, were suddenly thrust into emergency mode. Some ships immediately set sail for deeper waters, while others struggled to evacuate passengers…
A study by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and Utrecht University has revealed that the North Atlantic Ocean contains approximately 27 million tons of nanoplastics — microscopic plastic particles smaller than one micrometer. These tiny plastics, invisible to the naked eye, pose serious threats not only to marine ecosystems but also to…
Japan’s deep-sea discovery near Minami-Tori-shima, a remote island over 1,200 miles from Tokyo, was seen as a major breakthrough. The seabed holds an estimated $26 billion worth of cobalt and nickel—critical metals used in electric vehicle batteries. The government planned to begin large-scale mining by 2026 and viewed the project as a step toward energy…
A space capsule carrying the ashes of 166 people, along with a collection of cannabis seeds, was lost after crashing into the Pacific Ocean during reentry. The capsule, part of a mission called “Mission Possible” by German aerospace start-up The Exploration Company (TEC), launched on June 23, 2025. Its cargo, arranged through Texas-based space burial…