Oceanus Online Archive

Building International Bridges to Explore Ridges

In January 2007, WHOI scientists Jian Lin, who grew up in China, and Chris German, who grew up in England, became the new chair and co-chair of an international organization…

WHOI Gets New Chairman of the Board

Newt Merrill grew up sailing off the coast of New England, and like many who spend time on the water, he worried about the ocean’s health. When he moved from…

WHOI Earns Reaccreditation

WHOI has been reaccredited as a degree-granting institution by the organization responsible for accrediting New England colleges and universities. The Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the New England…

Ocean & Human Lives

Seismometer Deployed Atop Underwater Volcano

A team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution installed a novel underwater earthquake-monitoring system atop Kick’em Jenny, an active volcano just off the north coast of Grenada in the…

Old Whale Oil Tells Tale of New Pollution

It was the scientific equivalent of finding fine wine in an old cask. Analyzing whale oil from the whaling ship Charles W. Morgan’s last voyage, in 1921, marine chemists at…

WHOI Scientists Testify to Congress

Marine geochemist Scott Doney and marine policy specialist Porter Hoagland traveled to the nation’s capital this spring to inform Congress about critical ocean issues: the effects of climate change and…

Phone Call Links Inner and Outer Space

Tim Shank and Sunita Williams placed one of the most unusual long-distance phone calls of all time on Jan. 26, 2007. It traveled over a few time zones and through…

A Warm Eddy Swirling in the Cold Labrador Sea

Amy Bower is traveling to the Labrador Sea to install a mooring with novel carousels that will autonomously release profiling floats into passing warm eddies. She has also forged an innovative outreach partnership with the Perkins School for the Blind, including an expedition Web sight for students with visual impairments.

Pilot Study Examines Ciguatera Fish Poisoning

It is one of the most common illnesses from eating seafood, sickening more than 50,000 people a year, and it is on the rise around the world. Yet most people…

New Wrinkles in the Fabric of the Seafloor

Deborah Smith first heard the strange rumbling from the seafloor in 2001 and was eager to get to the bottom of it. The ocean commotion was detected by underwater hydrophones…

Interrogating the ‘Great Ocean Conveyor’

The Greenland-Scotland Ridge looms like a great undersea barrier, stretching from East Greenland to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, and across to Scotland. There are a few gaps in the…

Eavesdropping on Whales’ Mealtime Conversation

Like a knife slicing through denim, the black dorsal fin broke the surface of the icy water quickly, and then disappeared into the depths. “Off the port bow,” yelled Ari…

A 3-D Underwater Soundscape

Climate & Weather

Forecast: Hotter East Coast Summers …

Summer Under Arctic Ice

This month, an international team of scientists and engineers are exploring the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean while cruising aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden. The science team is sending three…

Following Whales Up a Creek

Michael Moore is accustomed to working solo (or nearly so) in remote places, but this was a very public endeavor. The WHOI marine mammal biologist and veterinarian flew across the…

The Deepest Divers

For years, sperm whales and elephant seals were thought to hold world records for holding their breath under water. But those animals have nothing on beaked whales. Using digital tags…

The Ocean—Captured in a Box

Claudia Cenedese prides herself on thinking inside the box. Her boxes are made of Plexiglass, and they contain the oceans—but on a miniature scale. Most oceanographers make tiny observations in…

What Does It Take To Break a Whale?

The ship hit the whale with a force that snapped her 14-foot jawbone like a toothpick and left a 4-foot-long crack in her skull. Known as 2150 among scientists, she…

Ocean & Human Lives

Scientists Unearth Long Record of Past Hurricanes

Reaching down into the muck below a lagoon off Puerto Rico, two geologists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reached back 5,000 years to compile the longest record of strong hurricanes…

Growing Marine Plants Need Their Vitamins

Your mother was right: You need your vitamins. And that turns out to be true for life in the oceans, too. B12—an essential vitamin for land-dwelling animals, including humans—also plays…