Multimedia
El Niño and La Niña
El Niño brings Pacific warming, East African rains, and Asian droughts. La Niña flips the pattern. This natural cycle shifts global rainfall every few years.
Read MoreSamoa Chain
Hotspots like Samoa and Hawaii form island chains as magma erupts through the crust while tectonic plates drift over a fixed source deep in the mantle.
Read MoreArctic Halocline
As sea ice forms, it releases salt, making surface water sink—creating a cold layer that shields the ice from deeper, warmer waters below.
Read MoreElemental Journeys
Vast amounts of elements move via nature and humans—through erosion, rivers, farming, and more—measured in Pg, Tg, and Gg. HANPP tracks our impact.
Read MoreLethal Interactions
Researchers summarized lethal interactions among 185 strains of Vibrio bacteria in a circular family tree diagram, showing relatedness of individual strains.
Read MoreHow biofilm forms in the sea
Biofilms form as bacteria settle and produce slime. Fighting them may work better by boosting natural biofilm reduction: bacterial detachment and protist predation.
Read MoreWhere the whales are
Fresh coastal currents meet salty ocean water to form a front where copepods aggregate in dense surface patches, creating feeding hotspots for marine life.
Read MoreRadioactivity in the Ocean: Natural vs. Human Sources
Nuclear accidents released PBqs of radiation, but natural sources like potassium-40 far exceed them—15 million PBq already exist in seawater.
Read MoreRAFOS Floats
RAFOS floats measure temperature, salinity, and pressure at depth. They drift, then surface to transmit data via satellites to scientists onshore.
Read MoreListening in on Whales
Scientists eavesdrop on bowhead whale calls using moorings with hydrophones that record their singing
Read MoreDeep-sea Gorges
Deep seafloor canyons host powerful currents that flow uphill along canyon floors, potentially playing a key role in driving global ocean circulation.
Read MoreBetween the beach and the deep sea
The shallow inner shelf connects beach and ocean, where waves, tides, and seasonal changes mix sand, water, and nutrients, shaping coastal transport.
Read MoreIndian Ocean Dipole
The Indian Ocean Dipole influences weather patterns: its positive phase brings rain to East Africa and India, while drought affects Southeast Asia.
Read MoreNoah’s Not-so-big Flood
10,000 years ago, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake dammed by the Bosphorus Sill. Rising sea levels later flooded it, possibly inspiring the Noah’s flood story.
Read More2010 Haiti Earthquake
Figure of the January 12, 201 earthfquake in Haiti, illustrating the stress, faults, and aftershocks of the event.
Read MoreDoes Sand Move Bacteria at the Beach?
Sand that had moved onto the beach during days 3 and 5 of this study contained bacterial DNA, indicating the movement of sand can redistribute microbes.
Read MoreBacteria and Diatoms
Diatoms and bacteria rely on each other for key nutrients like carbon and B12—but they also compete for scarce iron in the ocean’s complex chemical soup.
Read MoreForms and Transformations of Estrogen
Estrogens exist in free, conjugated, and chlorinated forms, with varying potency and environmental impacts, influencing human health and ecosystems.
Read MoreGreenland-Scotland Ridge
The Greenland-Scotland Ridge is a tall undersea ridge that rises within 500 meters of the sea surface and extends from East Greenland to Iceland and across to Scotland.
Read MoreMarine Microbe Relations
Scientists uncover how autotrophic and heterotrophic microbes interact via dissolved organic carbon, shaping ocean food webs and influencing Earth’s chemistry.
Read MoreLet the Sunshine In
Phytoplankton use chloroplasts to photosynthesize, adapting quickly to shifting light in the ocean to fuel growth with sunlight, carbon dioxide, and nutrients.
Read MoreUXO Marks the Spot
Unexploded ordnance (UXO) from the 1940s and 50s can sometimes resurface in the surf or wash up on beaches at former U.S. military coastal training ranges as the coast erodes.…
Read MoreAlvin, Phone Home
When the human-occupied submersible Alvin surfaces from a deep-sea mission, specially trained crew members called “swimmers” ride a small boat from the research vessel Atlantis to meet the sub. They…
Read MoreBreaking Through
WHOI research engineer Peter Koski prepares an ice tethered profiler for Arctic deployment, working in the science lab of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy. Koski was one of 30 scientists aboard the…
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