Media Tip Sheet – August 2025

AUGUST 2025 MEDIA TIP SHEET

Welcome to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s media tip sheet. Our goal is to provide an advanced or detailed look at stories we believe are impactful or trending and offer WHOI experts if you’re interested in a deeper dive.

WHOI-run facility records massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Russia

The Ocean Bottom Seismic Instrument Center (OBSIC) maintains a fleet of more than 115 instruments to support research into Earth’s internal structure and dynamic processes, including earthquake faulting and volcanism. On July 29, six Trillium Compact Spheres and a reference sensor located on Cape Cod picked up recent seismic activity in Russia. These sensors sit on a concrete slab, isolated from the rest of the building, affixed directly to the bedrock below, giving them an accurate reading of the Earth’s dynamic processes. This platform is used to evaluate newly built sensors before they are deployed to the seafloor for short and long-term scientific studies.

WHOI has been a leader in ocean-bottom instrumentation since 1976, maintaining an unbroken chain of engineers who have passed down knowledge across generations, continually building on past innovations. The current OBSIC program is supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Images available for use with credit, including graphs of the recent earthquake as recorded from Cape Cod, can be found here. Interviews with OBSIC engineers and facility tours are also available.

New interdisciplinary program takes a collaborative approach to studying storms

WHOI researchers are participating in a new initiative to enhance our understanding of extreme weather, such as hurricanes. The Study on Air-Sea Coupling with Waves, Turbulence, and Clouds at High Winds (SASCWATCH), funded by the Office of Naval Research, involves the deployment of a grid of ocean sensors ahead of hurricanes over the next 3 years. The coordinated combination of in situ observations, satellites, and high-resolution models allows us to fill gaps in our knowledge of air-sea interactions. This study will build off of existing ocean observation programs, such as Argo and ALAMO, which gather real-time water temperature and salinity data.

Step into the eye of the storm in the WHOI Press Room.

Photos and video available for use with credit to Steve Jayne, ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, can be found here. Interviews with scientists are available.

September marks 40 years since the RMS Titanic’s final resting site was discovered. How has ocean research and exploration evolved since then?

On September 1, 1985, an international team led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the French oceanographic institution, IFREMER located the ship nearly 12,500 feet below the surface of the North Atlantic using Argo, a towed underwater imaging system developed at WHOI. After days of scanning the seafloor, the crew found and followed a trail of debris, which eventually led them to one of the ship's iconic boilers. The team also used ANGUS, a separate camera system, to capture high-quality photos of the wreck. The discovery was a breakthrough in deep-ocean exploration and demonstrated the power of uncrewed technologies developed for deep-sea research. Since then, WHOI has continued to lead the way for new innovative methods of deep-sea imaging.

Learn about the search for the Titanic and the evolution of deep-sea imaging in the Press Room. 

Images and video available for use with credit can be found here. 

Other Stories:

• New report highlights plastic pollution as a grave and growing danger to health and announces an independent, health-focused global monitoring system

• New paper reveals global threat of salt contamination to water supplies in tidal rivers, threatening critical infrastructure

• WHOI’s Christopher Reddy Elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society

On the August Calendar:

August 9: Woods Hole Science Stroll

August 13: Yawkey Foundation x WHOI: Life on the Rocks book talk

August 30: International Whale Shark Day

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