Scientific news

The Institut de Ciències del Mar coordinates Cos4Cloud, an ambitious European project that will create cutting-edge technology services to improve citizen science platforms.

Understanding how earthquakes occur is one of the main open questions in the field of seismology. Decades of research have not been enough to establish a model to predict earthquake’s behaviour neither to explain the systematic variation of the properties of their seismic rupture observed according to the depth where they initiate. This situation has often led to underestimate their capacity to generate tsunamis, making it difficult to develop early warning systems in areas affected by large and great earthquakes.

An international team led by the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC, Barcelona) demonstrate the growth of a young fault in the Alboran Sea, called the Al-Idrissi Fault System, source of the magnitude (Mw) 6.4 earthquake, which affected Al-Hoceima, Melilla and the south of the Iberian Peninsula in January 2016. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows the generation and growth of an active fault system.

A study with researchers from CEAB and ICM, both centres of CSIC, reveals that marine sponges, the oldest group of animals on the planet, contribute significantly to one of the fundamental biogeochemical cycles of the ocean: the silicon cycle. Until now, it was believed that the main sinks of silicon occurred through the burial of diatoms, but according to the new results, published in Nature Geosciences, skeletons of marine sponges are also important sinks of silicon in the global ocean.

The Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) leads a study, published in Global Change Biology, which proposes a conceptual framework and classification for ocean acidification refugia (OAR) for the first time. OARs are specific locations where ocean acidification impacts could be less intense, protecting biodiversity.

Marine bacteria that capture light and transform it into biochemical energy are not a rarity, as previously thought. A work published this week in the journal Science Advances, with the participation of the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), shows that sunlight, the main source of energy sustaining marine ecosystems, is mainly captured by bacteria, and not by algae and cyanobacteria (also called blue-green algae), as previously thought.