Atlantic Ocean

A French nuclear submarine with advanced sonar equipment Wednesday began searching for the flight recorders of an Air France airliner that crashed into the Atlantic last week, the French military said. The Emeraude was sent to hunt for the voice and flight data recorders, which may help explain the disaster and are believed to be lying on the ocean floor.

Autopsies have revealed fractures in the legs, hips and arms of Air France crash victims, injuries that, along with the large pieces of wreckage pulled from the Atlantic, strongly suggest the plane broke up in the air, experts said Wednesday.

A Dutch ship towing a high-tech U.S. Navy listening device was set to troll the Atlantic in search of data and voice recorders that are key to determining what caused an Air France jet with 228 people on board to crash into the ocean. The device, called a towed pinger locater, will try to detect emergency audio beacons, or pings, from Flight 447's recorders, which could be thousands of feet below the ocean surface. Without the recorders, it may be impossible to determine what caused the Airbus A330 to crash several hundred miles off Brazil's coast May 31. The locater can search to a depth of 20,000 feet.

One of the world's most powerful telescopes opened its shutters in the Canary Islands to begin exploring faint light from distant parts of the universe. The Gran Telescopio Canarias, a $185-million telescope featuring a 34-foot reflecting mirror, sits atop an extinct volcano. Its perch above cloud cover takes advantage of the pristine skies over the Atlantic Ocean. The observatory is at 7,870 feet above sea level where prevailing winds keep the atmosphere stable and transparent, the Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute said.

Air Force officials say that a missing fighter pilot probably died instantly when his jet collided with another plane over the Atlantic Ocean. Authorities called off the search for Capt. Nicholas Giglio, who had been missing since Thursday night's crash. Air Force Col. Joe Guastella said experts analyzed data from the second plane, which landed safely, and interviewed the surviving pilot to determine Giglio's fate. The colonel said investigators believe that parts on the bottom of the second plane pierced the canopy of Giglio's plane when they collided about 30 miles northeast of Charleston.

Atlantic Ocean hurricane activity this year may be as much as 75% above the historical average as warm water provides fuel for storms, London-based forecasters at Tropical Storm Risk said Wednesday. The forecasters estimated 17 tropical storms would form, with nine reaching hurricane force and four of those becoming major hurricanes with winds topping 111 mph. As many as five storms, including two hurricanes, may make landfall in the U.S., according to the forecast.

A massive ocean circulation pattern that plays a crucial role in shaping the world's climate may not have been slowing down over the last few decades as scientists previously believed, according to a study released Thursday. The perceived slowdown had been considered alarming support for computer predictions that global warming would disrupt the planet's heat regulation.

miami -- A tropical depression formed in the open Atlantic late Monday, while Tropical Storm Jerry weakened to a depression and then dissipated in cooler waters. The 12th tropical depression of the season was expected to develop into Tropical Storm Karen sometime today, but should not threaten land over the next several days, said senior hurricane specialist James Franklin.

Forecasters expect another busy Atlantic hurricane season this year, with 17 named storms but not as many intense storms striking land as last year. The 2005 season was the most destructive in recorded history, with 27 named storms and 14 hurricanes, including Katrina, which devastated Louisiana and Mississippi and killed more than 1,300 people. This year's hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov.

The Atlantic and Pacific oceans appeared to have connected at a point between South America and Antarctica about 41 million years ago, University of Florida researchers reported this week in the journal Science. Previous studies had dated the formation of the Drake Passage, which allowed the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to begin, as recently as 17 million years ago.