Multimedia Items
Groundwater 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 […]
Read MoreLethal Interactions
Researchers created this diagram to summarize their findings about lethal interactions among 185 strains of Vibriobacteria. Individual strains of bacteria are represented by the black lines protruding from the rim of […]
Read MoreHow a Biofilm Forms in the Sea
Biofilms form when bacteria settle onto a hard surface (1), where they proliferate and produce slime (2). Most efforts to fight biofouling have targeted these steps. WHOI biochemist Ben Van […]
Read MoreTale of the Tuna
Where the Whales Are
A relatively fresh coastal current carrying tiny marine organisms called copepods flows into the Great South Channel. The current collides with saltier, denser water to form an ocean front. The […]
Read MoreSource of Radioactivity in the Ocean
Human and natural sources of radioactive isotopes in the ocean. NOTE: colored ovals not drawn to scale. (Illustration by Jack Cook, courtesy of the Coastal Ocean Institute, Woods Hole Oceanographic […]
Read MoreRAFOS Floats
RAFOS floats are designed to take measurements of temperature, salinity, and pressure in layers of ocean water at any depth.They are deployed using one of two methods. Some floats are […]
Read MoreClimate Change and Ancient Civilizations
(Illustration by Amy Caracappa-Qubeck, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Read MoreListening in on Whales
Because the Arctic and subarctic regions are seasonally ice-covered, it is impossible to keep track of whales visually throughout the year. So scientists eavesdrop on bowhead whale calls using moorings […]
Read MoreDeep-sea Gorges
The seafloor is filled with thousands of deep canyons, where powerful currents appear to be flowing uphill along the canyon floors. These currents could play a major role in driving […]
Read MoreThe Gateway between the Beach and the Deep Sea
Anything traveling from the shoreline to the ocean and vice versa—water, fish larvae, sand, pollutants—must go through the shallow inner shelf, which connects the beach to the deep ocean. There’s […]
Read MoreIndian Ocean Dipole
The Indian Ocean has its own seesaw behavior, the Indian Ocean Dipole. During a so-called positive phase, warmer-than-usual water temperatures in the western Indian Ocean bring heavy rains to East […]
Read MoreNoah’s Not-so-big Flood
Top: When sea levels were lower 10,000 years ago, the Black Sea was a large freshwater Black Lake. It was dammed off from the salty Mediterranean Sea by the then […]
Read More2010 Haiti Earthquake
The Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti alleviated built-up stress along one segment (blue gridded area boxes) of the Enriquillo fault, which cuts across the island. But scientists calculated areas (red […]
Read MoreDoes Sand Move Bacteria at the Beach?
(Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Read MoreBacteria and Diatoms
Bacteria and unicellular marine plants called diatoms depend on each other for some essential nutrients, but they also compete for other nutrients. So life gets complicated in the chemical soup […]
Read MoreTypes of Estrogen
(Illustration by Amy Caracappa-Qubeck, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Read MoreGreenland-Scotland Ridge
The Greenland-Scotland Ridge is a tall undersea ridge that rises within 500 meters of the sea surface and extends from East Greenland to Iceland and across to Scotland. The ridge […]
Read MoreMarine Microbe Relations
By closely examining the stew of organic carbon compounds dissolved in the ocean, scientists are beginning to reveal previously unknown relationships between specific marine microbes, forged by the materials they […]
Read MoreLet the Sunshine In
Single-celled phytoplankton carry out photosynthesis within specialized organelles called chloroplasts. Like factories, the chloroplasts’ photosynthetic machinery requires raw materials and energy—sunlight—to operate. Cells living in the ocean must rapidly adapt […]
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