Multimedia Items
Deepwater Horizon – major findings and technological advances
Ten years ago, a powerful explosion destroyed an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and injuring 17 others. Over a span of 87 days, the Deepwater Horizon well released an estimated 168 million gallons of oil and 45 million gallons of natural gas into the ocean, making it the largest accidental marine oil spill in history.
Read MoreA Window into the Twilight Zone
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution oceanographer Andone Lavery and her team of scientists and engineers have created the ultimate tool for exploring the largest, least known habitat on Earth—the Twilight Zone, a layer of the ocean beyond all but the dimmest sunlight. What they find might change our understanding of deep-ocean life.
Read MoreNOAA Live! webinars for kids
While you are home, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Regional Collaboration Network in conjunction with Woods Hole Sea Grant and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is offering this series on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11 EDT during school closures.
Each webinar features a different NOAA expert/topic and a moderated question and answers session so that you can get a peek at what our NOAA scientists do in all the various NOAA offices. These webinars are geared toward grades 2-8 and allow students to connect with scientists. Webinars are between 45-60 minutes in length and are recorded. #NOAALive4Kids
Read MoreThe ocean’s carbon pump works better than we thought!
Scientists have long known that the ocean plays an essential role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere, but a study from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) shows that the efficiency of the ocean’s “biological carbon pump” has been drastically underestimated, with implications for future climate assessments. Marine chemist Ken Buesseler and his co-authors call on their fellow oceanographers to adopt a new metric for estimating the depth of the ocean’s sunlit layer, thus its ability to take up carbon.
Read MorePolar bear sighting aboard USCGC Healy
A polar bear sighting off the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy during the 2015 Arctic GEOTRACES expedition. The Arctic has experienced the highest degree of warming on the planet, causing sea ice to thin and recede. The region’s iconic polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt, travel and mate.
Read MoreHyperiid amphipod: a shimmer in the net
This hyperiid amphipod is a member of the crustacean family that typically act as parasites to gelatinous neighbors, such as salps. This particular suborder lives exclusively in the marine environment. Paul Caiger, who snapped the picture, saw this particular shrimp-like species during an ocean twilight zone research cruise on R/V Neil Armstrong (2020).
Read More360˚ Video: Deploying Mesobot
You’re on deck as the stealthy underwater robot Mesobot makes another trip into the ocean twilight zone to test equipment that will help scientists track bits of “environmental DNA” floating in the water.
Read MoreThe Ocean is Earth’s Oxygen Bank
Oxygen is like money for Earth, and the ocean acts like a bank. Deposits are made in three ocean layers: At the surface through exchange with air, in the water, when phytoplankton produce O2 from sunlight and CO2, and on the seafloor where plants and corals live. Withdrawals occur when organisms consume oxygen. Oxygen is tightly connected to life in the ocean, and can tell us a lot about an ecosystem’s health & productivity. This is why we need an ocean oxygen budget. A simple idea, but has been difficult until now.
Read MoreRelief and splendor in a small village full of big science
Welcome to the 1940s! A time when World War II was underway in Europe and Americans were filled with hope and the beginning of a new era. While working long hours on wartime and post-wartime projects, WHOI staff blew off steam by performing in 1945 and 1946 stage shows called the Woods Hole follies.
Read MoreMaritime reflections along Yaquina Bay Bridge
On the shore beyond the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport, Oregon, Ordinary Seaman Michael Sessa captured this serene vista while WHOI’s research vessel Atlantis was in port
Read MoreThe Ocean Twilight Zone: Earth’s Final Frontier
The mysteries of the ocean twilight zone are waiting to be explored. What was once thought to be desert-like isn’t a desert at all. Where the deep sea creatures lurk there are incredible biomass and biodiversity. The ocean twilight zone is a huge habitat that is very difficult to explore. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is poised to change this because we have the engineers that can help us overcome these challenges. Making new discoveries in ocean exploration is more important now than ever.
Read MoreInspired to Understand – Amy Apprill
Amy Apprill was a midwestern citizen before the call of the ocean found her. Now a resident expert in microbial ecology in WHOI’s Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry Department, she’s studying a growing epidemic affecting coral reefs across the world, known as stony coral tissue loss disease. With an eye for detail, Apprill’s forensic approach analyzes coral sickness down to differences in DNA.
Read More30 years later, traces of an oil spill persist
In 2018, researchers from WHOI and their collaborators from Haverford College collected oil samples from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill deposited on the shores of McClure Bay in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
Read MoreCan you spot the eumunid crab?
This vulnerable gorgonian soft coral is the perfect home for the vibrant eunumid crab. See if you can spot it!
Read MoreROV Jason captures underwater video during earthquake
In January and February 2020, scientists on R/V Atlantis explored hydrothermal vents on the Cayman Rise. They used the remotely operated vehicle Jason to get an up-close view of the vents and life around them. The vents lie on a seismically active part of the seafloor known as a mid-ocean ridge. Deep-sea shrimp swarm the vents, feeding on microbes that live on chemicals flowing from the vents. While they were there, a magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck just 100 miles away. Scientists will now be able to study how seismic activity affects hydrothermal vents and the life around them.
Read MoreSentry dives to a biological oasis
WHOI operators deploy the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry off the coast of Oregon at a site called “Pythias Oasis.”
Read MoreAquaculture pioneer Scott Lindell presents at TEDx Cambridge
Current farming and fishing practices are having devastating impacts on our climate and environment. Scott Lindell, research specialist at The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, reveals how marine aquaculture can sustainably feed the world’s growing population.
Read MoreA tenacious ship pushes forward
R/V Atlantis rides out stormy seas in the North Atlantic during NASA’s Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) cruise to study the processes associated with the world’s largest phytoplankton bloom. This image was shot from the NASA C-130 aircraft during a storm at the end of the expedition. (Photo by John Hair, NASA)
Read MoreOases in Sea Ice Are Essential to Life in Antarctica
This video explains the key physical, biological and ecological processes in oases on the Antarctic icy coast — polynyas. Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Delaware are trying to unveil crucial connections among the physical and biological components in the polynyas and to understand how the Antarctic ecosystem responds to changes in the large-scale environment.
Read MoreA transient iceberg kingdom meanders through the Southern Ocean
Icebergs drift by the Rothera Station in Antarctica during the final cruise of of the Diapycnal and Isopycnal Mixing Experiment in the Southern Ocean (DIMES) project aboard the British icebreaker RRS James Clark Ross
Read MoreValue Beyond View: The Ocean Twilight Zone
How does the ocean twilight zone benefit life on Earth? The ocean twilight zone helps regulates our climate. Storing two to six billion tons of carbon annually. That’s up to six times the amount of carbon emitted from autos worldwide. Preventing an increase in temperature between 6-11°F. The ocean twilight zone supports a healthy ocean ecosystem. Containing 10 times more fish than the rest of the ocean. Providing food for many other animals in the ocean. The ocean twilight zone could also play an important role in feeding a growing population. We are working to better understand this realm in order to inform sustainable management decisions.
Read MoreOpen Ocean Diving Observations
Watch and learn how blue and black water diving is conducted in the open ocean and what these divers see during the day and during the twilight zone migration at night.
Read MoreTagging and Tracking Wild Squid
Squid are ecologically important marine animals that play a key role in many ocean ecosystems and fisheries. Measuring squid movements, energetics, and habitat use in their natural environment provides important insight into their ecology. However, because the inherent challenges of monitoring these soft-bodied, open-ocean-dwelling organisms, fine-scale observations of their behavior are rare. Bio-logging tags are an increasingly useful way to remotely study squid behavior in their natural environments.
Read More2019 Year in Review
Enjoy this montage of video captured throughout 2019 documenting how WHOI researchers explore the ocean planet to tackle the most pressing questions about our water world and find solutions to benefit society.
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