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Cool, Calm, and Collected

December 18, 2018

WHOI scientist Rocky Geyer collects a water sample in the South River in Marshfield, Mass., to analyze the amount of suspended sediments in it. There won’t be much on a calm day like this, but the samples will be used to calibrate measurements by moorings, which can measure the high amounts of sediments that get suspended in the water when nor’easters pound the coast and it is too rough for researchers go out and sample. Geyer, WHOI scientist Dave Ralston, and University of Massachusetts professor Jon Woodruff are investigating how sediment gets transported to salt marshes, whose survival—as sea levels rise—depends on a healthy supply of sediments. (Photo Sean Patrick Whelan, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)