Word: oceanic
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...California is a place that is within the United States yet apart from them," she said. "Where the East looks across the ocean to Europe, California looks across the Pacific to Asia...
...climate change brings about a large rise in sea level, the principal immediate cause will be the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet. WAIS is the world's last remaining marine ice sheet (meaning that it sits on the ocean floor rather than floats). It is so big that volcanic eruptions at its bottom only rarely cause a dimple on its surface. Marine ice sheets persist only as long as they have enough mass to squeeze out underlying seawater, which makes them inherently unstable. Should this ice sheet collapse or float free, as other marine ice sheets have done...
Also vulnerable is the floating apron of sea ice that surrounds Antarctica. During the winter, this apron effectively doubles the continent's size, then in summer it shrinks 80%. The interaction of deep ocean currents and sea ice is crucial to the vast "conveyor belt" that redistributes the sun's heat around the globe. For all its importance, however, it is on average less than 2 ft. thick, and its stability depends on a precarious balance of factors ranging from air temperature to the salinity and temperature of the water...
...Diego has studied emperor penguins, beguiling flightless birds that are dependent on Antarctic sea ice. The penguins need 255 days of sea ice in order to complete the cycle from egg laying to the stage when fledglings are hardy enough to begin their wanderings through the southern ocean. Typically, the young birds jump into the water only two weeks or so before the ice breaks up. This year, says Kooyman, the ice near Franklin Island broke up in mid-December, two weeks before the fledglings were ready to embark, probably dooming the juveniles to an early death. The story...
...bazaar was brightly decorated, with a backdrop of towering mosques. The pale cream buildings matched the pomp and brilliance of the harem women's and merchants' attire. The pirates' lair was set in a misty blue lagoon: one almost expected to see a little mermaid appear out of the ocean. The scenes with the life-size ship moving across the stage were fun to watch although the men who pushed it across had the cameo appearance with their shoes peeking out from beneath...