Multimedia Items

A black smoker chimney billows from a hydrothermal vent site called “Snake Pit” on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It was photographed by scientists Holger Jannasch and Cindy Van Dover diving in…

Alvin engineer and pilot Danik Forsman holds a seafloor heat blanket used to measure the heat flow from the seafloor. Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientist Ross Parnell-Turner reads its weight. Prior…

The Galápagos Islands are home to species found nowhere else on Earth, such as this land iguana. This unique ecosystem depends on nutrients brought to the islands by the Equatorial…

Chris Lathan, a former pilot of the human-occupied submersible Alvin, works during ths sub’s upgrade that was completed in 2014, 50 years after the original Alvin was launched. He’s working on the…

The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry returned to the research vessel Atlantis recently after an overnight mission to map the seafloor ahead of a dive by the human-occupied submersible Alvin…

This artists’ rendition illustrates the unusual confluence of waters that occurs beneath the surface of the Bay of Bengal. From the west comes warm, salty waters (yellow) formed in the…

WHOI engineers Rick Krishfield (right) and Kris Newhall take part of an ice-tethered profiler (ITP) for a sled ride in Resolute Bay, Canada, before deploying it on an Arctic Ocean…

Alvin expedition leader Todd Litke (left) and pilot Danik Forsman prepare the human-occupied submersible to make its first dive of a recent expedition to explore the geology and geochemistry of…

This is a bird’s-eye view of a blue hole in the Bahamas. In the middle of it, WHOI researchers in a pontoon boat prepare to extract cores of sediments that…

Third mate Amy Biddle updates the ship’s log during her night watch on the bridge of the research vessel Atlantis. In addition to her duties standing regular watch on the…

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…

This alien from outer space is actually a common inhabitant of the world’s oceans. The creature, an amphipod (a relative of beach hoppers) that feeds on other zooplankton called salps,…

A deep-sea “elevator” carrying samples from hydrothermal vents is hoisted from the water as members of the science team aboard the research vessel Atlantis watch from the rail of the…

Oceanographers working in the North Atlantic always face the prospect stormy weather, but those on a 2010 expedition on the research vessel Atlantis got more than their share. First, they…

A member of the science team on a recent expedition aboard the research vessel Atlantis carefully documented the freshly cut surface of a piece of seafloor basalt. The rock formed…

James Yoder speaks from the podium during commencement celebrations at WHOI in 2010. Yoder, who served as the Vice President of Academic Programs and Dean from 2005 to 2016, retired…

Researchers sometimes have to handle wild animals as part of their work. When handling penguins, they use what’s known as a “rugby hold,” so-called because the penguin’s torpedo-shaped body looks…

WHOI scientists are using this fragmentation chamber to simulate how waves, sunlight, and sand degrade plastics into tiny fragments in the ocean over time. The chamber provides a motorized platform…

On days that the human-occupied submersible Alvin dives, the operations team begins early in the morning with the first of many checklists. Their process covers each of the sub’s major…