Photos: Big Waves Pound California Coast

Large and powerful waves pounded Orange County’s beaches this weekend, creating dangerous conditions that warded off swimmers, attracted daredevil surfers, required lifeguards to perform several rescues and even forced a cruise ship to change course.

Connecting Islands in the Pacific

According to a report in January from the Tongan Ministry of Information & Communications, the new island between Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha’apai rose about 120 meters (390 feet) above sea level.

The Blue Amazon: Brazil’s New Natural Resources Frontier

Brazil’s Atlantic continental shelf holds 90 and 77 percent of the country’s proven oil and gas reserves. This Blue Amazon, rich in both biodiversity and energy resources, is similar in extension to the country’s rainforest – nearly half the size of the national territory. But the big challenge is to protect the wealth of the Blue Amazon along 8,500 km of shoreline.

Ancient Clam Beaches Not so Natural, Study Shows

Ancient coastal Indigenous people were more than hunter-gatherers, new research shows. Researchers suggest that the Pacific Northwest is one of the few places in the world where it can be documented’ that many Indigenous peoples had sophisticated marine management.

Legislation Would Change Landscape of Zeke’s Island, NC

For more than a century “the Rocks,” a breakwater built by the Army Corps of Engineers, has separated the channels at the southern tip of New Hanover County from the Cape Fear River. Legislation that would allocate funding to help North Carolina maintain the state’s inlets and waterways, is looking to change that.