A team of seismologists and oceanographers has shown that small earthquakes repeatedly emanating from the same spot beneath the ocean floor can help measure changes in ocean temperature. The quakes generate reliable acoustic signals for measuring ocean temperatures, including at depths below 2000 meters, beyond the reach of other techniques. If validated, the approach, published this week in Science, could open an entirely new ocean observation system for understanding past and future climate change, says Frederik Simons, a geophysicist at Princeton University unaffiliated with the study. “There’s a potential treasure trove of data waiting to be analyzed.” Read the research: https://scim.ag/32FlfPl For more background: https://scim.ag/2FJLPO7 PRODUCER/EDITOR Joel Goldberg ANIMAT Bear SEISMIC MAP ANIMATIONS NOAA/National Weather Service/ Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Seismic Sound Lab/Columbia University NATURAL SOUND Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization/ Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Lab IMAGES Bron766/Wikimedia Commons California Coastal Commission Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization VIDEO Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization John Hunt/Phil Sutton/The Argo Program NOAA/Ocean Today Pond5 Scripps Institution of Oceanography Videoblocks Wolfram Language REFERENCES W. Wu et al., Science 2020 DOI: 10.1126/science.abb9519 M. Tolstoy and D.R. Bohnenstiehl, Surveys in Geophysics 2006 DOI: 10.1007/s10712-006-9003-6 Show more