Milky seas effect
Milky seas (Somali: Kaluunka iftiima; English: Milky seas), also called mareel, is a luminous phenomenon in the ocean in which large areas of seawater (up to 6,000 sq mi or 16,000 km2) appear to glow translucently (in varying shades of blue). Such occurrences glow brightly enough at night to be visible from satellites orbiting Earth.
Mariners and other seafarers have reported that the ocean often emits a visible glow which extends for miles at night. In 2005, scientists announced that for the first time, they had obtained photographic evidence of this glow.[1] It is most likely caused by bioluminescence.[2][3][4]
Effect
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Between 1915 and 1993, 235 sightings of milky seas were documented,[5] most of which are concentrated in the northwestern Indian Ocean near to Somalia.[6] The luminescent glow is concentrated on the surface of the ocean and does not mix evenly throughout the water column.[7]
In 1985, a research vessel in the
While monochromatic photos make this effect appear white, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute scientist Steven Haddock (an author of a milky seas effect study) has commented, "the light produced by the bacteria is actually blue, not white. It is white in the graphic because of the monochromatic sensor we used, and it can appear white to the eye because the rods in our eye (used for night vision) don't discriminate color."[12] In Shetland (where generally caused by Noctiluca scintillans), mareel has sometimes been described as being green,[13] rather than the traditional blue or white milky seas effect seen by the rest of the world. It is not known whether this difference depends on the area, or simply a perception of a cyanic colour as being green.
Etymology
The phenomenon is known as mareel in Shetland. This term is derived from the Norn word *mareld, which is itself derived from the Old Norse word mǫrueldr, which is a compound of marr (mere, sea) and eldr (fire).[a]
In the Somali language it is called “Kaluunka Iftiima”. The term translates to glowing sea creatures or glowing fish as the word Kaluun refers to any bio organism that lives in the sea. It is most commonly used to refer to fish.
Notes
References
- ^ Britt, Robert Roy (October 4, 2005). "Mystery Ocean Glow Confirmed in Satellite Photos". Live Science.
- ^ Holladay, April (November 21, 2005). "A glowing sea, courtesy of algae". USA Today.
- ^ "Sea's eerie glow seen from space". New Scientist. October 5, 2005.
- ^ Casey, Amy (August 8, 2003). "The Incredible Glowing Algae". NASA Earth Observatory. NASA.
- ^ "The Marine Observer". 1993.
- ^
- Zettler, Erik; Mincer, Tracy; Amaral-Zettler, Linda (2013). "Life in the "Plastisphere": Microbial Communities on Plastic Marine Debris" (PDF). S2CID 10002632.
- Haddock, Steven; Moline, Mark; Case, James (2010). "Bioluminescence in the Sea" (PDF). PMID 21141672.
- These reviews cite this research.
- Miller, S. D.; PMID 16186481.
- Zettler, Erik; Mincer, Tracy; Amaral-Zettler, Linda (2013). "Life in the "Plastisphere": Microbial Communities on Plastic Marine Debris" (PDF).
- .
- ^ Ramaiah, N. D. Chandramohan (1992). Desai, B. N. (ed.). "Ecology and biology of luminous bacteria in the Arabian Sea". Oceanography of the Indian Ocean. New Delhi: Oxford and India Book House: 11–23.
- ^ Tada, K; Pithakpol, S; Montami, S (2004). "Seasonal variation in the abundance of Noctiluca scintillans in the Seto Inland Sea, Japan". Plankton Biology and Ecology. 51 (1): 7–14.
- .
- ^ Oceana: Noctiluca scintillans. Archived 2012-11-11 at the Wayback Machine Marine Animal Encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
- ^ Pescovitz, David (2005-10-04). "First milky sea photo". Boing Boing. Archived from the original on 2011-07-09. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
- ^ Moncrieff, Helen. "Mareel - Lights From The Sea". The RSPB Community. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
Further reading
- Detailed discussion and images of milky sea observation
- BBC News: 'Milky seas' detected from space
- Miller, S.D., S.H.D. Haddock, C.D. Elvidge, T.F. Lee. Detection of a bioluminescent milky sea from space. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. v102:14181-14184 Abstract
- Nealson, K.H. and J.W. Hastings (2006) Quorum sensing on a global scale: massive numbers of bioluminescent bacteria make milky seas Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72:2295-2297. Manuscript
- Nijhuis, Michelle (2022) "The Mystery of Milky Seas", Scientific American, 327(2): 30–39.