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| | 1. Research associate Kathryn A. Rose preserves coral samples at the University of Panama's NAOS laboratory during a expedition to the Gulf of Panama's Pearl Islands in June 2011. Rose's work is part of wide-ranging research into the effects of ocean acidification on coral reefs by WHOI scientist Anne Cohen and colleagues. The naturally low pH of seawater in the Gulf of Panama makes this a natural laboratory for ocean acidification research and is one of 10 reef systems across the Indo-Pacific currently studied by Cohen's lab. (Photo by Anne Cohen, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) | | 2. Postdoctoral scholar Peter van Hengstum of the Coastal Systems Group prepares to deploy sediment traps in Oyster Pond near WHOI's Quissett Campus. A group of researchers and students, led by Jeff Donnelly, recently mobilized in advance of the approaching Hurricane Irene to install instruments and make measurements along the shoreline to monitor any changes caused by high winds and rough seas. The data should help researchers refine their understanding of the way in which large storms appear in such historical records as sediment cores. (Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) | | 3. The Ocean Bottom Seismology Laboratory at WHOI led by John Collins specializes in building and operating seismometers to record ground-shaking seismic waves on the seafloor. The lab almost always has some sensors around that are being tested. On Tuesday, August 23, 2011, shortly before 2 p.m., engineers in the lab—Alan Gardner, Tim Kane and Ken Peal—felt an odd shaking. They immediately went to their testing platform, which fortunately held a sensor at the time. From it, they recovered this seismogram, which recorded the seismic waves from Tuesday's magnitude 5.8 earthquake that rumbled the East Coast. (Courtesy of Ocean Bottom Seismology Lab, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) | | 4. In the WHOI Core Lab, retiree and volunteer George Heimerdinger moves a length of sediment core encased in PVC pipe to the core splitter, where the PVC will be split lengthwise along opposite sides. Then the end caps will be cut and a wire will be used to slice through the sediment, following the cuts along the sides of the PVC tube. The segment of core, 1.5 meters long and weighing about 70 pounds, was cut from a much longer core and contains sediment that accumulated over several thousand years. Researchers at WHOI study cores to learn about past climate and ocean conditions. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) | | 5. Cape Abilities project manager Trevor Harrison (right) works with Carol Dimock in WHOI scientist Rob Evans’ lab. Evans is partnering with Cape Abilities, an organization that supports people with disabilities on Cape Cod, to manufacture electrodes for oceanographic instruments that measure naturally-occurring electric and magnetic fields to provide data on the structure deep within the earth. The new instruments will be deployed across the Cascadia subduction system—a 680-mile fault off the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast where geologic conditions are similar to those in Japan that triggered the March 2011 earthquake. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) | | 6. Fom left, Senior carpenter Rowland Cummings, engineer Paul Fucile, and post doctoral investigator Masako Tominaga view a custom Helmholtz Coil frame Cummings built, before winding wire on it. By passing electric current through a Helmholz coil scientists can generate magnetic fields matching Earth's field in any region. Tominaga and WHOI geophysicist Maurice Tivey study seafloor magnetism for clues to geologic processes. They will use this coil to calibrate magnetometers to be mounted on oceanographic floats that drift with ocean currents and send back data about the magnetism of little-studied ocean basins. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) | | 7. WHOI geologist and earthquake expert Jian Lin arrived on New Zealand’s South Island two days after the deadly 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck that region on Feb. 22. Lin traveled to the nearby port city of Lyttelton to board a Korean research vessel, the icebreaker Araon. His eventual aim was to join a group studying the seafloor geology and deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Southeast Indian Ridge, a little-explored part of the Mid-Ocean Ridge system that encircles the Earth, but as an earthquake expert, he took some time to survey damage to buildings in the area. Because of damage to harbor facilities, the team's point of departure was moved to another port about 200 miles to the south. All those on the ship when the earthquake struck were safe. (Photo courtesy of Jian Lin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) | | 8. WHOI scientists Pat Lohmann (left) and Neal Cantin drill into a massive starlet coral on a reef north of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to remove a core sample. The core provides information about changing ocean conditions and how the coral responded to those changes over the last few hundred years. After the core is removed, the divers plug the drill hole with cement to prevent infection. The coral is fully recovered within a year. (Photo courtesy of Anne Cohen, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) | Last updated: July 6, 2012 |
