The systematic discrepancies in both tsunami arrival time and leading negative phase (LNP) were identified for the recent transoceanic tsunami on 16 September 2015 in Illapel, Chile by examining the wave characteristics from the tsunami records at 21 Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) sites and 29 coastal tide gauge stations. The results revealed systematic travel time delay of as much as 22 min (approximately 1.7% of the total travel time) relative to the simulated long waves from the 2015 Chilean tsunami. The delay discrepancy was found to increase with travel time. It was difficult to identify the LNP from the near-shore observation system due to the strong background noise, but the initial negative phase feature became more obvious as the tsunami propagated away from the source area in the deep ocean. We determined that the LNP for the Chilean tsunami had an average duration of 33 min, which was close to the dominant period of the tsunami source. Most of the amplitude ratios to the first elevation phase were approximately 40%, with the largest equivalent to the first positive phase amplitude. We performed numerical analyses by applying the corrected long wave model, which accounted for the effects of seawater density stratification due to compressibility, self-attraction and loading (SAL) of the earth, and wave dispersion compared with observed tsunami waveforms. We attempted to accurately calculate the arrival time and LNP, and to understand how much of a role the physical mechanism played in the discrepancies for the moderate transoceanic tsunami event. The mainly focus of the study is to quantitatively evaluate the contribution of each secondary physical effect to the systematic discrepancies using the corrected shallow water model. Taking all of these effects into consideration, our results demonstrated good agreement between the observed and simulated waveforms. We can conclude that the corrected shallow water model can reduce the tsunami propagation speed and reproduce the LNP, which is observed for tsunamis that have propagated over long distances frequently. The travel time delay between the observed and corrected simulated waveforms is reduced to <8 min and the amplitude discrepancy between them was also markedly diminished. The incorporated effects amounted to approximately 78% of the travel time delay correction, with seawater density stratification, SAL, and Boussinesq dispersion contributing approximately 39%, 21%, and 18%, respectively. The simulated results showed that the elastic loading and Boussinesq dispersion not only affected travel time but also changed the simulated waveforms for this event. In contrast, the seawater stratification only reduced the tsunami speed, whereas the earth’s elasticity loading was responsible for LNP due to the depression of the seafloor surrounding additional tsunami loading at far-field stations. This study revealed that the traditional shallow water model has inherent defects in estimating tsunami arrival, and the leading negative phase of a tsunami is a typical recognizable feature of a moderately strong transoceanic tsunami. These results also support previous theory and can help to explain the observed discrepancies.

Including significant warming trend, Arctic climate changes also exhibit strong interannual variations in various fields, which is suggested to be related to El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. Previous studies have demonstrated the different impacts on the Arctic of central Pacific (CP) and eastern Pacific (EP) ENSO events, and suggested these impacts are largely of opposite sign for ENSO warm and cold phases. Our results illustrate asymmetrical changes for the cold and warm ENSO events, especially for the La Niña events. Compared to the past frequent basin-wide cooling La Niña events, since the 1980s the cooling center for the La Niña event has strengthened and moved westward along with the increasing frequency for the canonical and CP La Niña events. Contrary to the basin-wide cooling and canonical La Niña events, the frequent CP La Niña events induce significant warming from the Beaufort Sea to Greenland via the convection center moving northward over the western Pacific. Observation analysis and numerical experiments both suggest that the changes in La Niña type may also accelerate Arctic warming.

Hydrothermal vent incidence was once thought to be proportional to the spreading rate of the mid-ocean ridges (MORs). However, more and more studies have shown that the ultraslow-spreading ridges (e.g., Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR)) have a relatively higher incidence of hydrothermal venting fields. The Qiaoyue Seamount (52.1°E) is located at the southern side of segment #25 of the SWIR, to the west of the Gallieni transform fault. The Chinese Dayang cruises conducted eight preliminary deep-towed surveys of hydrothermal activity in the area during 2009 and 2018. Here, through comprehensive analyses of the video and photos obtained by the deep-towed platforms, rock samples, and water column turbidity anomalies, a high-temperature, ultramafic-hosted hydrothermal system is predicted on the northern flank of the Qiaoyue Seamount. We propose that this hydrothermal system is most likely to be driven by gabboric intrusions. Efficient hydrothermal circulation channels appear against a backdrop of high rock permeability related to the detachment fault.

Roughness-induced emission from ocean surfaces is one of the main issues that affects the retrieval accuracy of sea surface salinity remote sensing. In previous studies, the correction of roughness effect mainly depended on wind speeds retrieved from scatterometers or those provided by other means, which necessitates a high requirement for accuracy and synchronicity of wind-speed measurements. The aim of this study is to develop a novel roughness correction model of ocean emissivity for the salinity retrieval application. The combined active/passive observations of normalized radar cross-sections (NRCSs) and emissivities from ocean surfaces given by the L-band Aquarius/SAC-D mission, and the auxiliary wind directions collocated from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) dataset are used for model development. The model is validated against the observations and the Aquarius standard algorithms of roughness-induced emissivity correction. Comparisons between model computations and measurements indicate that the model has better accuracy in computing wind-induced brightness temperature in the upwind/downwind directions or for the surfaces with smaller NRCSs, which can be better than 0.3 K. However, for crosswind directions and larger NRCSs, the model accuracy is relatively low. A model using HH-polarized NRCSs yields better accuracy than that using VV-polarized ones. For a fair comparison to the Aquarius standard algorithms using wind speeds retrieved from multi-source data, the maximum likelihood estimation is employed to produce results combining our model calculations and those using other sources. Numerical simulations show that combined results basically have higher accuracy than the standard algorithms.

The relationship between storm activity and global warming remains uncertain. To better understand storm–climate relationships, coastal lagoon deposits are increasingly being investigated because they could provide high-resolution storm records long enough to cover past climate changes. However, site-specific sediment dynamics and high barriers may bias storm reconstructions. Here, we aimed to investigate these factors through the reconstruction of five distinct storm records (XCL-01, XC-03, XC-06, XC-07, XC-08) from different water depths in a lagoon with a high barrier (i.e., Xincun Lagoon of Hainan Island). Sediment cores were characterized using high-resolution grain size and XRF measurements, to identify storm events. These data were coupled with a numerical simulation to obtain bed shear stress data with high-spatial resolution to better understand storm-induced sediment transport mechanisms. ²¹⁰Pb dating and Pb pollution chronostratigraphic markers indicated that the chronology of the storm deposit sequences of the cores span the period between 117 a and 348 a. The grain size and XRF results indicated numerous, highly variable and short-duration fluctuations, suggesting that storm-induced coarse-grained sediments were deposited at these core sites. The inconsistent storm events recorded in these cores suggest that these sites have different preservation potentials for storm deposits. However, the consistence between storm sediment records and historical documents for Core XCL-01 indicates that high-barrier lagoons could provide long-term storm event records with high preservation potential.

In order to satisfy the increasing demand for the marine forecasting capacity, the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea Operational Oceanography Forecasting System (BYEOFS) has been upgraded and improved to Version 2.0. Based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS), a series of comparative experiments were conducted during the improvement process, including correcting topography, changing sea surface atmospheric forcing mode, adjusting open boundary conditions, and considering atmospheric pressure correction. (1) After the topography correction, the volume transport and meridional velocity maximum of Yellow Sea Warm Current increase obviously and the unreasonable bending of its axis around 36.1°N, 123.5°E disappears. (2) After the change of sea surface forcing mode, an effective negative feedback mechanism is formed between predicted sea surface temperature (SST) by the ocean model and sea surface radiation fluxes fields. The simulation errors of SST decreased significantly, and the annual average of root-mean-square error (RMSE) decreased by about 18%. (3) The change of the eastern lateral boundary condition of baroclinic velocity from mixed Radiation-Nudging to Clamped makes the unreasonable westward current in Tsushima Strait disappear. (4) The adding of mean sea level pressure correction option which forms the mean sea level gradient from the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea to the western Pacific in winter and autumn is helpful to increasing the fluctuation of SLA and outflow of the Yellow Sea when the cold high air pressure system controls the Yellow Sea area.

A new species of the nereidid annelid, genus Nicon Kinberg, 1866, from KIOST Seamount, Northwest Pacific deep water is described. Nicon is a genus characterized by lacking paragnaths or papillae on the pharynx and composed of nine species worldwide, distributed from shallow water to deep sea. Nicon ablepsia sp. nov. here described is characterized by the lack of eyes on the prostomium, prolonged tentacular cirri reaching to chaetiger 6, notochaetae homogomph spinigers, neurochaetae homogomph spinigers and heterogomph falcigers. Phylogenetic relationships of Nicon remain undetermined based on molecular data. In this study, we constructed molecular Maximum-Likelihood phylogenetic tree from 29 nereidid species based on four marker genes: mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene; nuclear 18S rRNA gene and 28S rRNA gene. Our analysis suggest the Nicon is clustered within Nereidinae, and nereidinae is not recovered as monophyletic. A key to species of Nicon is provided.

A new species of Psychropotidae holothuroid, Benthodytes palauta sp. nov., was collected from the Kyushu-Palau Ridge at a depth of 2 666 m. This new species is characterized by a leathery body wall, red-violet skin, five pairs of dorsal papillae, nineteen pairs of tube feet, and a narrow brim. The internal organs include one Polian vesicle, two tufts of gonads, and no respiratory trees. Ventral ossicles are large and spinous, with crosses of four arms with central bipartite apophyses. Papillae ossicles are crosses with four arms with bipartite apophyses. The dorsal ossicles were few and large, and cross-shaped with four arms and central bipartite apophyses. Tentacle ossicles were large and rod-shaped or slender rods. Gonad ossicles were primary crosses of four arms and brim ossicles were cross-shaped with spines. The phylogenetic analyses of this species support that B. palauta sp. nov. belongs to Benthodytes. Furthermore, the paraphyletic relationships were confirmed; however, a revision of the genus Benthodytes is needed to resolve its phylogenetic relationship.

Seamounts are ubiquitous topographic units in global oceans, and their influences on local oceanic circulation have attracted great attention in physical oceanography; however, previous efforts were less made in paleoclimatology and paleoceanography. The Caiwei Guyot in the Magellan Seamounts of the western Pacific is a typical seamount, and in this study, we investigate a well-dated sediment core by magnetic properties to reveal the relationship between deep-sea sedimentary processes and global climate changes. The principal results are as follows: (1) the dominant magnetic minerals in the sediments are low-coercivity magnetite in pseudo-single domain range, probably including a biogenic contribution; (2) the variabilities of magnetic parameters can be clustered into two sections at ~500 ka, and the differences between the two units are evident in amplitudes and means; (3) changes in the grainsize-dependent magnetic parameters can be well correlated to records of global ice volume and atmospheric CO₂ in the middle Pleistocene. Based on these results, a close linkage was proposed between deep-sea sedimentary processes in the Caiwei Guyot and global climate changes. This linkage likely involves different roles of biogenic magnetite in the sediments between interglacial and glacial intervals, responding to changes in marine productivity and deep-sea circulation and displaying a major change in the Mid-Brunhes climate event. Therefore, we proposed that the sedimentary archives at the bottom of the Caiwei Guyot record some key signals of global climate changes, providing a unique window to observe interactions between various environmental systems on glacial-interglacial timescales.