School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology

SOEST in the News

Photo of Kina, a false killer whale False killer whales adjust their hearing sensitivity

At the Acoustics 2012 meeting, Paul Nachtigall, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) and Alexander Ya Supin, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, report on the ability of a false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) to adjust her hearing sensitivity when trained to expect a loud noise. Previous research suggested that they can “dull” their hearing before generating very loud outgoing echolocation clicks. “We think — based on much of our echolocation work — that it is much more than a simple reflex,” Nachtigall says.

Read more about it and see the video at the BBC; read more about it in Science Daily and a Scientific American podcast. Image courtesy of HIMB.

Photo of beach erosion 70% of beaches eroding on Kaua‘i, Maui, and O‘ahu

An assessment of coastal change over the past century has found 70% of beaches on the islands of Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, and Maui are undergoing long-term erosion, according to a US Geological Survey (USGS) / SOEST report released on 05-07-12. “A better understanding of historical shoreline change and human responses to erosion may improve our ability to avoid erosion hazards in the future,” said Chip Fletcher, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, head of the Coastal Geology Group (CGG), professor of Geology & Geophysics (G&G), and lead scientist on the decade-long study that studied more than 150 miles of Hawai‘i coastline.

Read more about it and watch the video report at KITV4 and Hawaii News Now; listen to the interview with Chip Fletcher on HPR’s “The Conversation” (starts at ~37min); read about it in The New York Times (added 05-21-12), the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (subscription), USGS Newsroom, Maui News, LiveScience, and UH System News. See also the SOEST press release PDF. Image courtesy of USGS; click on it to see a photo gallery at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

graphic of R/V Kilo Moana detecting tsunami Improving tsunami warning using commercial ships

Highly sensitive geodetic GPS equipment onboard R/V Kilo Moana detected the tsunami generated by the February 2010 magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile even though it was only 9.4 cm high as it passed under the ship, as reported in a paper in Geophysical Research Letters by lead author James Foster and co-authors Ben Brooks, Glenn Carter, and Mark Merrifield (all of SOEST) and Dailin Wang of NOAA’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC). A proposed system of similar GPS units installed on commercial ships could, as Foster notes, “improve our detection and predictions of tsunamis — saving lives and money.”

Read more about it and watch the video report at KHON2 and KITV4; read about it at Raising Islands, Hawaii 24/7, Phys.org, Hawaii Reporter, and UH System News. See also the SOEST press release PDF. Image courtesy of J. Foster / SOEST; click on it to see the full version.

Please visit SOEST in the News: 2012 for archived news articles, with links to previous years.

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