The Pacific White Line

From Commander Mark Hadfield, I learned today about the Pacific White Line. This is, well, a very large line across the Pacific Ocean: at its largest, two km across and several hundred km long! It forms when cold ocean currents, which carry minerals up from the sea floor, meet a front of warmer water. This produces an excellent environment for diatoms to thrive, attracting up to 50% of the fish in the Pacific Ocean to the line while it lasts. It's amazing that so many fish can be concentrated into such a comparatively small volume.

You can see Commander Hadfield's beautiful picture of the Pacific White Line, taken from the ISS, here.