Southampton

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts has hailed the new Southampton Martine and Maritime Institute (SMMI), of which the National Oceanography Centre is a component, as exemplary of the relationships required between industry and higher education to drive future economic growth in the UK and around the world.

The National Oceanography Centre has heralded James Cameron’s successful solo dive to the deepest part of the ocean.

The Hollywood director surfaced earlier this morning after completing a mission that took him to a depth of almost seven miles (11km) in the Mariana Trench.

The burning of fossil fuels is releasing vast quantities of extra carbon dioxide (CO₂) to the Earth’s atmosphere. While a proportion of this stays in the atmosphere, raising atmospheric CO₂ levels, around half is removed over time, either to become sequestered in trees and plants or to become absorbed in the ocean.

Icebergs on the high seas – in times gone by and in a changing world –

Talk by Dr Bob Marsh, Physical Oceanographer, National Oceanography Centre

The 50th anniversary of the launch of the Royal Research Ship Discovery was marked on 2 July 2012. This is her last year of service, a half-century of science that has included surveying the ocean floor, measuring ocean currents, monitoring climate change, and discovering new species around the globe.

Scientists, crew and support staff, past and present, associated with the Royal Research Ship Discovery gathered in 2012 to celebrate the half century of the vessel’s service to UK science.

More than 40 Ocean and Earth Science students attended the University of Southampton’s Winter Graduation on 14 December.

Now firmly established in the University calendar, students can elect to attend a winter ceremony, enabling those who were awarded degrees in the autumn to graduate within a few weeks or months rather than wait until the summer.

The number of students enrolling to undertake PhD research at the Graduate School of the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (GSNOCS) has risen by over a third in the last two years, as funding has been increased to match demand for places in this world class programme.

Saturday 17 March, 2012 -

Part of National Science and Engineering Week

Researchers have found that a fall in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels was a critical condition for global cooling and polar glaciation around 34 million years ago.