Ocean mixing is a physical oceanographic phenomenon encompassing the turbulent and wave-driven processes that irreversibly redistribute heat, salt, momentum, and biogeochemical tracers within the ocean interior and boundary layers. It is mediated by shear instability, double-diffusive convection, internal waves (including internal tides), and boundary-generated turbulence, and is quantified using parameters such as diapycnal and isopycnal diffusivities. Ocean mixing regulates the vertical exchange between the surface and deep ocean, controls stratification and overturning circulation, influences climate-relevant heat and carbon storage, and sets nutrient supply to the euphotic zone, thereby coupling physical dynamics with marine biogeochemistry.
A new study shows that during the last two deglaciations, i.e., the transition from an ice age to the warm interglacial periods, meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheet intensified stratification in the Southern Ocean. The ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 14, 2026
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Seamounts and the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) are two typical deep-sea habitats that often coexist. However, determining whether the "seamount effect" alters OMZ structure through marine stratification, thereby influencing ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 5, 2026
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When most of us look out at the ocean, we see a mostly flat blue surface stretching to the horizon. It's easy to imagine the sea beneath as calm and largely static—a massive, still abyss far removed from everyday experience.
Earth Sciences
Jan 29, 2026
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An interdisciplinary study confirms, for the first time, the oceanographic pathways that transport floating macroalgae from the coastal waters of Southwest Greenland to deep-sea carbon reservoirs, potentially playing a previously ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 26, 2026
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Over Christmas, vegetables, bananas and insulation foam washed up on beaches along England's southeast coast. They were from 16 containers spilled by the cargo ship Baltic Klipper in rough seas. In the new year, a further ...
Environment
Jan 24, 2026
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Beneath Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf lies one of the least measured oceans on Earth—a vast, dark cavity roughly twice the volume of the North Sea.
Earth Sciences
Jan 22, 2026
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La Niña—a climate phenomenon characterized by unusually cool sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean—can persist for multiple years, exerting significant climate impacts worldwide. In recent ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 22, 2026
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52
As marine-terminating glaciers melt, the resulting freshwater is released at the seafloor, which mixes with salty seawater and influences circulation patterns. As the oceans warm, it's growing increasingly important to study ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 13, 2026
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New findings about ocean processes in the Antarctic show melting ice shelves and changes to sea ice could have catastrophic implications for the global climate.
Earth Sciences
Dec 18, 2025
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94
Stanford researchers have uncovered evidence that deep underwater earthquakes can spur the growth of massive phytoplankton blooms at the ocean surface.
Earth Sciences
Dec 18, 2025
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