Blotted by pollution

Pollution from mining around parts of the Coral Sea could be responsible for a species of sea snake turning black, according to researchers. The turtleheaded sea snake typically looks like a black-and-white banded candy cane in its habitat near Australia. But scientists at the University of Sydney found that some snakes living in polluted areas northeast of Brisbane, off the French overseas territory of New Caledonia, and in a Queensland barrier reef atoll once used as a bombing range have turned nearly black. They also found the blackened sea snakes shed their skins twice as often as their lighter counterparts, perhaps in an adaptation to living in polluted waters.

Ice-free route

Sea ice has thinned so much along Russia’s Arctic coast in recent years that commercial shipping can now be conducted there with ice-hardened tankers between July and December. There were 19 full Arctic transits between the Atlantic and Pacific last year, but the construction of 15 new ice-going vessels means that number could soon become far greater. Winds that have helped thin Russia’s young sea ice also have blown older and much thicker ice toward Arctic Canada and Alaska, where shipping opportunities might be decades away, even with the dramatic warming going on in the Arctic.

Earthquakes

Schools and office buildings around Manila were evacuated after a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck just south of the Philippine capital. Earth movements also were felt in Sumatra, southern Peru, southwestern Turkey and near Botswana.