Free Republic

In a world running low on oil, several countries are still sitting on massive supplies. If only they could get to them. The Ferdows, Mound, and Zageh Fields Location: The Persian Gulf, off the coast of southern Iran Estimated Reserves: 38 billion barrels Details: Discovered in 2003, these three interconnected fields are among the largest oil deposits ever found. Ferdows is the largest, with 30.6 billion barrels. This figure may seem astounding, but it’s usually not possible to extract all the oil from a field due to technological and financial constraints. Plus, assessing how much oil these deposits can actually...

Nicaragua has awarded a Chinese company a 100-year concession to build an alternative to the Panama Canal, in a step that looks set to have profound geopolitical ramifications. The president of the country's national assembly, Rene Nuñez, announced the $40bn (£26bn) project, which will reinforce Beijing's growing influence on global trade and weaken US dominance over the key shipping route between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The name of the company and other details have yet to be released, but the opposition congressman Luis Callejas said the government planned to grant a 100-year lease to the Chinese operator. The national...

The Atlantic Ocean is rising at an annual rate three times faster than the global average since 1990, according to the US Geological Survey. Sea levels are rising much faster along the U.S. East Coast than they are around the globe, putting one of the world's most costly coasts in danger of flooding, government researchers report. U.S. Geological Survey scientists call the 600-mile (965-kilometer) swath a "hot spot" for climbing sea levels caused by global warming. Along the region, the Atlantic Ocean is rising at an annual rate three times to four times faster than the global average since 1990,...

Although it's said that still waters run deep, now scientists find that deep waters aren't still - in fact, the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean seem to have reversed their direction of flow since the last time ice dominated the Earth. Instead of heading southward as they do now, these abyssal waters once flowed northward roughly 20,000 years ago, back when the world saw ice sheets more than a mile high, a new study suggests. The change in flow could have accompanied profound changes in climate, researchers explained. Climate connection In the Atlantic, the Gulf Stream brings warm surface...

Woman scores Atlantic swim first A 56-year-old American athlete has become the first woman on record to swim the Atlantic. Jennifer Figge took 24 days to swim from the Cape Verde islands off Africa to Trinidad. The exact distance she covered has yet to be calculated. She swam inside a cage to protect her from sharks.

Miami, FL (AHN) - A 56-year-old Aspen, Colo. woman resident became the first woman to swim across the Atlantic Ocean when she stepped onto the beach at Trinidad this week. Jennifer Figge began her approximately 700-mile journey Jan. 12 from the Cape Verde Islands off Africa. She swam for eight hours a day, sometimes in waves as high as 30 feet, before returning to a support vessel at night that followed her on her swim. Crew from the support boat threw Figge energy drinks while she swam. She had originally planned to make landfall in the Bahamas, but was thrown...

SAN JUAN (Reuters) - Hurricane Omar strengthened on Wednesday as it bore down on Puerto Rico and the small islands of the northeastern Caribbean, and could be a "major" storm by the time it reaches them, U.S. forecasters said. The 15th tropical cyclone of a busy Atlantic hurricane season formed north of the Dutch island of Curacao on Tuesday, briefly preventing Venezuela from loading tankers with crude oil and knocking out power at the OPEC nation's 200,000 barrel-per-day Puerto La Cruz refinery. The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Omar would grow into a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson...

Canadian geologists say they can shed light on how a vast lake, trapped under the ice sheet that once smothered much of North America, drained into the sea, an event that cooled Earth's climate for hundreds of years. During the last ice age, the Laurentide Ice Sheet once covered most of Canada and parts of the northern United States with a frozen crust that in some places was three kilometres (two miles) thick. As the temperature gradually rose some 10,000 years ago, the ice receded, gouging out the hollows that would be called the Great Lakes. Beneath the ice's thinning...

A drill will be used to extract samples of the exposed mantle Scientists are to sail to the mid-Atlantic to examine a massive "open wound" on the Earth's surface.Dr Chris MacLeod, from Cardiff University, said the Earth's crust appeared to be completely missing in an area thousands of kilometres across. The hole in the crust is midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The team will survey the area, up to 5km (3 miles) under the surface, from ocean research vessel RRS James Cook. The ship is on its inaugural voyage after being...

Prospect Of Sudden Climate Change snap frozen in a single lifetime? Washington (SPX) May 31, 2004 By now, many of us have heard the ominous predictions of a possible future global apocalypse, where cataclysmic floods, tornadoes, and blizzards threaten to destroy civilization. As a consequence of climate change, the melting of polar ice supposedly could send vast quantities of fresh water into the North Atlantic's salty oceans. This torrent would work to shut down a major Atlantic Ocean current that stabilizes the Northern Hemisphere's climate system, unleashing abrupt and drastic changes to our climate. While these forecasts are extreme, most...

IT'S almost unheard of at the Jersey Shore: a beach with free parking and no beach tags. But now, thanks to a decision by state officials, this summer's visitors to Cape May Point State Park will find those perks come with a major catch - no swimming. The ban was already being flouted this week by swimmers who promised that, like the early heat wave, their defiance was just a preview of things to come. "It's unfair," said a disgusted Joanie Kane of Lower Township, Cape May County, as she headed for the surf to keep an eye on her...