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Ocean Encounters: Ice!
Insights from frozen frontiers on Earth and beyond Frozen landscapes have captivated imaginations for generations.
But what kinds of life can survive in these harsh environments? What can ice tell us about Earth’s past—and future? And what could we discover by peering beneath the thick, icy surface of ocean worlds elsewhere in our solar system? Join three WHOI researchers as we explore these questions and more!
Read MoreFrozen PIES
From left, WHOI mooring technician Meghan Donohue, University of Oregon professor Dave Sutherland, and WHOI scientist Magdalena Andres deploy an instrument known as PIES—a pressure-sensor equipped inverted echo sounder—in the Sermilik Fjord…
Read MoreFrozen Moment
Deck crew of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy maneuver a plankton net into the waters of the Chukchi Sea during a cruise led by WHOI oceanographer Bob Pickart in May 2014.…
Read MoreFrozen white molasses
From the air, Greenland’s ice sheet looked like white molasses oozing down the mountainside and into the sea. Researchers are investigating Greenland’s glacial lakes, which form atop the ice sheet…
Read MoreThe frozen continent
In Antarctica, fierce winds blow plumes of snow out to sea and erase most of the 400 mile long Ross Ice Shelf from view. As global climate warms, polar researchers…
Read MoreFrozen Evidence
WHOI geologist Adam Soule holds a chunk of icy sediment plucked from the soils of Antarctica in December 2007. When Soule and colleagues dug a pit into the earth around…
Read MoreFrozen Peaks
The Antarctic landscape was captured in many photographs during Dive and Discover Expedition 10 in February and March 2006. (Photo by Katherine Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Read MoreFrozen in Time
WHOI researchers found these barnacle larvae, called cyprids, frozen into ice on the shores of Buzzards Bay, Mass. The larvae (about half the diameter of the head of a pin)…
Read MoreInto the wide blue yonder
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy steams north out of Dutch Harbor, a port in the Aleutian Islands of southwestern Alaska, heading toward the ice of the Bering Sea. The…
Read MoreIce Water
WHOI glaciologist Sarah Das who calls herself a “frozen oceanographer” snapped this aerial view of a “supraglacial” lake in the summer of 2003. As the Greenland ice sheet melts, more…
Read MoreMarch of the Juveniles
Emperor penguin chicks hatch into the frozen world of Antarctica—one of Earth’s most inhospitable places. A recent study reveals what the juveniles do in the critical early months when they…
Read MoreBlue Hued
This image of a blue iceberg, calved off a glacier, was captured on a research trip to waters off Greenland. Its striking color indicates that the ice in it is…
Read MoreMelt Down
Summertime ice melt along the Greenland Ice Sheet has sped up in recent decades, more fresh water to flow into the surrounding ocean. The fresh water carries nutrients and organic…
Read MoreIceberg Alley
A large iceberg breaks away from the Helheim Glacier and floats among slabs of pack ice in Sermilik Fjord along the southeastern coast of Greenland. The glacier, about 3 miles…
Read MoreChanging Landscape
Tuktoyaktuk means “Land of the Caribou” in the Inuvialuit language, which explains the sculpture in the foreground, but the landscape of the Northwest Territories, Canada, is also of interest for…
Read MoreInto the Cold
WHOI physical oceanographer Robert Pickart is currently leading an international team on board the NATO research vessel Alliance to get a close-up look at a poorly understood, but critical, part…
Read MoreLimited Visibility
The North Atlantic can be an inhospitable place, especially in late winter, but that is exactly when WHOI physical oceanographer Robert Pickart needs to be there. Pickart and his international…
Read MoreGlacial Torrent
In 2012, 98 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet‘s surface area melted for several days, sending torrents of meltwater down glaciers near the coast. Rising meltwaters and icebergs also tore…
Read MoreClearing the Decks
Clearing ice from the decks of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy was a regular task for ship’s crew during a 2011 cruise into the Arctic. WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian…
Read MoreDeclining Sea Ice
The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy steams through “pancake” sea ice in the Arctic Ocean in October 2013. WHOI physical oceanographer Bob Pickart led the cruise to complete a ten-year…
Read MoreOne Last Look
An ice-tethered profiler (ITP) takes one last look at the sky before passing through four meters of ice in the Beaufort Sea to begin a study of ocean physics, biology,…
Read MoreRising Tides
Sea level rise is accelerating as warming temperatures cause ice to melt and ocean water to expand. Under many scenarios, sea level rise is expected to remain under three feet…
Read MoreLand-Sea Connections
Guest investigator Kristina Brown, right, and research assistant Kate Morkeski troubleshoot a new dissolved inorganic carbon sensor in the lab of WHOI marine chemist Aleck Wang. In the Arctic, a…
Read MoreBrave New World
The bow of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy plows a path through sea ice in the Beaufort Sea. Evidence of Earth’s changing climate is especially visible in the Arctic,…
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