Multimedia Items
Frozen 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 MoreA Gobbling Deep-Sea Vehicle
WHOI engineer Justin Fujii had a bit of fun in 2016, dressing up the deep-sea robot Sentry with electrical tape to celebrate a Thanksgiving conducting research at sea. Sentry is…
Read MoreScientific Assembly Line
It took a village of researchers to process a tube of sediments cored from Great Barnstable Salt Marsh on Cape Cod. Working in WHOI biogeochemist Amanda Spivak‘s lab are, from…
Read MoreExploring the USS Arizona
In July 2018, WHOI chemist Chris Reddy traveled to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to collect oil samples from surface sheens near the USS Arizona, which has been leaking oil since it…
Read MoreRadioactivity in the Ocean
Crew members on the Japanese research vessel Shinsei Maru deploy a “multi-corer” to collect samples of seafloor sediments just offshore from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. WHOI scientist Ken…
Read MoreScallops Under Threat
Atlantic sea scallops are a $500 million annual industry, but WHOI scientists believe they may be in danger. A new model developed by WHOI researcher Jennie Rheuban suggests that as human-induced climate change…
Read MoreA Wonder of a Vehicle
The free-swimming robotic vehicle Sentry has had many “faces” over the years, often thanks to WHOI engineer and electrical tape artist Justin Fujii. In honor of Sentry’s 500th dive last…
Read MoreHeading North
MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Joleen Heiderich and WHOI engineer Patrick Deane deploy a Spray glider from a small boat off the coast of Miami. The robotic vehicle is the workhorse…
Read MoreAncient Inlet
WHOI Summer Student Fellow Rachel Gold (Brown University) examines a sediment core from Lake Carmi, Vermont. The sediments provide evidence of an inland sea—formerly known as the Champlain Sea—that flooded…
Read MoreMonsoon Prediction
WHOI scientists are working in the Indian Ocean to gain new insights into forecasting monsoons—the seasonal, heavy rain storms that billions of people on the Indian subcontinent depend upon to…
Read MoreSee SPOT Run
Diminishing sea ice in the Antarctic will mean fewer fish and squid to eat for emperor penguins—like these at Atka Bay Colony. The Single Penguin Observation and Tracking (SPOT) Observatory…
Read MoreProtecting the Troops
During World War II, WHOI scientists and engineers contributed to the war effort with some 40 projects that advanced understanding of underwater sound, helped predict the movement of currents and…
Read MoreHonoring an Educational Pioneer
Family and friends gather with Arthur E. Maxwell (third from left) at festivities at WHOI in September 2018 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the MIT-WHOI Joint Program…
Read MoreWhoops, Woman Overboard!
One of this year’s contestants falls off her “unboat” in WHOI’s Anything-But-A-Boat Race – community event in Woods Hole, Mass., that attracted hundreds of spectators on Sept. 16. Race rules…
Read MoreWill Oxygen in the Ocean Continue to Decline?
Levels of oxygen in the ocean have decreased in the past, causing catastrophic losses of marine life. Scientists worry that oxygen levels may be decreasing now and into the future.…
Read MoreWho is WHOI?
We are scientists, engineers, and technicians pushing the frontiers of ocean research. Meet Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Read MoreForecasting Where Ocean Life Thrives
Where do plankton grow more prolifically in the ocean? At “fronts” where different water masses meet. In this case, less-salty, less-dense water from the Atlantic Ocean enters the Mediterranean Sea,…
Read MoreReassessing Guidelines for Oil Spill Cleanups
Dispersants contain detergents, not unlike those people use to wash dishes, which help break oil into small droplets that can become diluted in the ocean. They also contain an organic…
Read MoreAlbatross Flight Dynamics
Albatrosses extract energy from winds to soar, as seen in these diagrammatic views from the side (left) and from overhead (right). LEFT DIAGRAM: Above a wave, winds blow progressively faster…
Read MoreGroundwater and the Ocean
Groundwater comes from precipitation that falls on land. Some of this water evaporates into the atmosphere, gets taken up by plants, or flows into streams, but some infiltrates into the…
Read MoreEl Niño and La Niña
The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is a natural cycle that recurs over two to seven years. When surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific are warmer than usual (an El Niño…
Read MoreSamoa Chain
Island chains such as Samoa and Hawaii are known as hotspots, where magma from the mantle erupts through the crust. This creates seafloor volcanoes that often rise above the ocean…
Read MoreArctic Halocline
When sea ice forms, it releases salt into surface waters. These waters become denser and sink to form the Arctic halocline’s layer of cold water that acts as barrier between…
Read MoreElemental Journeys
Enormous amounts of chemical elements move throughout the surface of the Earth. This illustrates how much is moved by various natural processes or human activities, in units of petagrams (Pg…
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