The sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean last week reached its smallest extent in nearly 40 years of satellite measurements. http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/arctic-sea-ice-annual-minimum-ties-second-lowest-on-record | NASA Earth

The arctic is melting, uncovering new shipping routes and resources that were previously closed off to nations like Russia, Norway, and the US. The tangled borders below the ice are pushing each to act quickly to lay claim to this new ocean at the top of the globe. Here's how the dynamic is playing in out in Svalbard, one of the northern-most inhabited places on Earth. | Vox

NOAA Ocean Exploration has been leading or supporting expeditions since 2001 that have resulted in the discovery of everything from underwater volcanoes and landslides to cold seeps and steppe features. These and other geological findings help to shift our understanding of the basic processes that govern and shape our planet. Learn more: https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/20years/geology.html [About the video: In 2014, while exploring in the Gulf of America, we discovered flower-like extrusions of a