Multimedia Items

Sunset off the coast of Colombia, photographed during a sediment coring cruise for climate studies. (Photo by James Broda, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

R/V Knorr seen from the shore of Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos islands. The ship will return to Woods Hole in late June after a lengthy voyage in the…

In June 2004 students and staff with the MIT/WHOI Joint Program hiked at Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii for insight into the island’s origin. (Photo by John Whitehead, Woods Hole Oceanographic…

Navigational lighting from the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy makes an interesting pattern in the Arctic ice. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

WHOI geologist Debbie Smith explores volcanic terrain in Iceland. The island provides a land-based laboratory for oceanographers to study lava formation and flow. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Smith, Woods Hole…

A diver services instruments collecting data in the surf zone. Currents, waves and sands constantly change the shoreline. (Photo by Britt Raubenheimer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Giant clams up to one foot long thrive in the crevices around seafloor pillow lava. This vent site on the Galápagos Rift, discovered in 2002, is called “Calyfield” after the…

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. (Photo…

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…