Earth’s warming climate has really heated up Atlantic hurricanes in recent years. Two recent studies, in fact, found that hurricane wind speeds were boosted by an average of 18 miles per hour. That was enough to kick most of the hurricanes to a higher category—including some that were juiced up to category five, the most powerful of all.

As the atmosphere heats up, it warms the oceans. And heat is what powers hurricanes. So warmer oceans make hurricanes more intense.

Scientists studied the impact of warmer oceans on the intensity of hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean from 2019 through ’23. In a separate study, they looked at the 2024 season.

The researchers used records of sea-surface temperatures, models of Earth’s climate, and statistical analyses. They used those details to simulate what hurricanes might have been like without human-caused global warming. And they compared those results to the actual hurricanes.

The results were astounding. The winds of 80 percent of hurricanes from 2019 through ’23 were boosted by roughly one category. And all 11 hurricanes in 2024 were kicked up, by anywhere from nine to 28 miles per hour. That includes boosts to the top level for both category five hurricanes.

Heavier winds cause more damage. They blow more stuff over, and they create a bigger storm surge. So as long as the oceans keep getting hotter, hurricanes might keep getting stronger.

A couple of years ago, marine biologists bought some giant “seabugs” from fishers in Vietnam. The creatures had been pulled from the mud at the bottom of the South China Sea. They were up to a foot long, weighed a couple of pounds, and had armor plating. The creature had never been cataloged before—it was a new species. Its face resembled the mask of Darth Vader, so the scientists named the seabug after him.

Bathynomus vaderi is one of thousands of marine species discovered in recent years. The list includes fish, corals, crabs, worms, jellies, and others. Unlike the giant seabug, most have been gathered during scientific expeditions.

In early 2024, for example, researchers announced the discovery of more than a hundred new species off the west coast of South America. The scientists had sampled life along an underwater mountain chain, at depths of up to three miles. Each mountain had its own ecosystem, including deep-sea coral reefs and sponge gardens.

Another group found more than five thousand new species across a wide span of the Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and Mexico. It’s a prime site for possible mining operations, which biologists say could destroy entire species.

Some new species have been found in closets; in 2023, researchers classified some fish that had been captured and preserved 30 years earlier.

An international group hopes to catalog tens of thousands of new species over the coming decade—no matter where they find them.

There’s a big hole in the Indian Ocean. It’s nothing you can actually see. And the ocean itself isn’t especially deep. Instead, it’s a hole in Earth’s gravitational field—the weakest pull across the entire planet.

The “hole” was discovered in 1948. It’s centered about 750 miles off the southwestern coast of India. It covers more than a million square miles—more than a third the area of the Lower 48 states. Gravity there is so weak that surrounding regions of the ocean pull water away from it. As a result, sea level above the hole is about 350 feet lower than the global average.

In 2023, using computer models of the motions of the plates that make up Earth’s crust, scientists suggested the hole may be the remnant of another ocean—the Tethys Ocean. It vanished tens of millions of years ago.

The ocean was wedged between two “super”-continents—slabs that held most of the world’s total land area. But the motions of the plates pulled apart one of the continents. That pushed the plate that held the Tethys Ocean deep into the mantle—the layer below the crust.

The ocean floor reached its deepest point below the surface about 20 million years ago. It pushed away dense blobs of rock, allowing lighter rock to bubble up from below. The lighter rock exerts a weaker pull than the rocks around it.

Scientists still need to confirm that scenario—a possible explanation for a giant “hole” at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.