Multimedia Items

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge near the equator is offset by huge faults called fracture zones, through which a strong deep current flows. This physical barrier may block the transport of vent […]

In a few places on Earth, blocks of oceanic crust called ophiolites have been thrust onto the continents, giving scientists a firsthand look at rock formations that were once beneath […]

Rising 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above the Samoan island of Ta’u, Mount Lata is an active volcano. One of its sides collapsed in landslides that left a steep escarpment primed […]

Dennis McGillicuddy launches a satellite-tracked drifter into the Bay of Fundy to examine how ocean currents circulate water and the harmful algae Alexandrium into and out of the bay. […]

A thin section of pyroxene from the Indian Ocean with colors produced by light passing up through a polarizer and the rock’s crystal lattice. Earth’s upper mantle is composed mainly […]

Macquarie Island, a tiny island between Tasmania and Antarctica in the Southern Ocean, is home to large colonies of Royal penguins and other animals. The island is a Tasmanian State […]

A giant tubeworm in its protective white tube, collected during the 2005 Galapagos Rift expedition, is examined by biologist Breea Govenar aboard ship. The expedition was featured on the WHOI […]

An aerial view of the village of Woods Hole, with the Institution dock facilities at the center. WHOI research vessels Knorr, Oceanus, and Atlantis are home, a rare occurrence. (Woods […]

Veteran seagoing WHOI researchers Craig Marquette (left) and Will Ostrom deploy a mooring with tiny temperature probes from R/V Oceanus during a gale off Cape Hatteras. (Photo by Chris Linder, […]

WHOI geochemist Mak Saito joined an international research team aboard the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer in the austral summer of 2005-06 to explore the ecological struggle between two major groups […]

A tall, portable light system, the “deep-sea light post,” illuminates a portion of Hulk, a 25-meter (82-foot) hydrothermal chimney located on the Juan de Fuca Ridge off Seattle. (Woods Hole […]

A complex circulation system in the Arctic Ocean is designated by red and blue arrows (warm and cold water). WHOI scientists and engineers are exploring how global climate change is […]

Twin plankton nets, called ‘bongo nets’, hang over the side of a ship. The nets are towed through the water to capture copepods, which are counted to track their abundance […]

Seaman Clindor Cacho works on the R/V Oceanus guiding floats as they are prepared for deployment into the Irminger Sea east of Greenland. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic […]

David Sutherland, an MIT/WHOI Joint Program student in the Physical Oceanography department, joined an ascending glider during a test in the Bahamas in January 2003. (Photo by Dave Fratantoni, Woods […]