Oceanus Online Archive
A Tropical Research Paradise
WHOI Trustees Frank and Lisina Hoch have issued a one-to-one $1.125 million challenge to seize new opportunities and expand the Institution’s research in tropical regions.
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Institution Celebrates 75th Birthday in 2005
WHOI celebrates 75 years of ocean research, education, and exploration this year with several events planned for August and September.
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Seafloor Reconnaissance Reveals Hidden Dangers Off Antarctica
For five frigid weeks in April and May 2005, a team of scientists and engineers sat in inflatable boats off the coast of the western Antarctic Peninsula, steering clear of […]
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Remembering a Scientist/Student/Artist
Celeste Fowler joined the MIT/WHOI Joint Program (JP) in June 2003 and quickly made her presence felt.
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WHOI Associates Have a New President
In May 2005, Carl Peterson was named president of the WHOI Associates, whose membership supports research at WHOI.
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Newest Alvin Pilot Comes Aboard
Gavin Eppard became WHOI?s newest Alvin pilot on March 21, 2005.
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Pittenger Fellowship Awarded to Naval Graduate Student
WHOI presented its first Rear Admiral Richard F. Pittenger Fellowship in March to Ensign Allison Berg, a master’s degree candidate in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program.
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Guy Nichols: Transforming Institutions
Guy Nichols never shied away from tough jobs. And he never lost sight of the fact that an organization needs all its people, not just those at the top.
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On the Seafloor, a Parade of Roses
Third generation of scientists finds third generation of hydrothermal vent sites.
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From Ancient Roman Omens, New Data on Solar Activity
Because aurorae, comets, and meteors were omens, the Romans and other ancient peoples observed the sky fastidiously, recording heavenly observations alongside detailed accounts of earthly events and military triumphs. Twenty centuries later, those historical records have become scientific data for researchers such as WHOI Senior Scientist Andy Solow.
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Oceanographic Telecommuting
‘Virtual’ chief scientist directs a research cruise without leaving land.
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The Great Flood of New York
An ice dam forming a large Ice Age lake collapsed 13,350 years ago, sending a flood down the Hudson River Valley and causing dramatic climate changes.
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Transparent Salps May Play Conspicuous Ecological Role
WHOI biologist Larry Madin led an expedition to waters off Antartica to learn about little-known gelatinous animals.
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Checking the Forecast for ‘Marine Snow’
The “rain” of tiny particles from sunlit surface waters to the deep ocean could play a key role in understanding global warming.
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Fathoming the Ocean Without Ever Going to Sea
“The general circulation of the ocean is a massive and majestic phenomenon,” says WHOI physical oceanographer Joe Pedlosky. In 2005, Pedlosky was awarded the prestigious Sverdrup Gold Medal of the American Meteorological Society for his theories explaining the inner workings of the ocean and the atmosphere. Not bad for an oceanographer who has never gone on a research cruise.
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Sensors to Make Sense of the Sea
It is difficult and expensive to go to sea, hard to reach remote oceans and depths, and impossible to stay long. Like scientists in other fields, oceanographers use sensors to project their senses into remote or harsh environments for extended time periods. But the oceans present some unique obstacles: Instruments are limited by available power, beaten by waves, corroded by salt water, and fouled by prolific marine organisms that accumulate rapidly on their surfaces.
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Seeing Red in New England Waters
Coastal resource managers shut down shellfish beds in three New England states in mid-May—including rare closures of Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay—because of an intense bloom of the toxic algae Alexandrium fundyense. Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution saw the ‘red tide’ coming before its toxic effects reached the shore.
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Risks and Remedies from the Sea
Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have embarked on a novel collaboration to investigate harmful algal blooms, ocean-borne pathogens, and potential pharmaceuticals from marine sources.
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Ocean Life Institute
The oceans cover 70 percent of the planet?s surface and constitute 99 percent of its living space, and every drop of ocean water holds living things. Without its oceans, Earth would be a rock in space, and life may never have appeared on our planet.
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Down to the Sea on (Gene) Chips
The genomics revolution has reached the oceans. New genomic techniques are being used to find previously unknown life forms in the oceans; to learn how species, and genes themselves, evolved over Earth?s long history; to understand the genetic tools that allow species to adapt to diverse and often harsh environments; and to investigate species? responses to pollutants.
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Rambling Atop an Active Volcano to Detect Telltale Rumbling Within It
With machete in hand and 60 pounds of satellite receiver and tripod on his back, Jeff Standish looked up into the lush tropical brush that covered the volcano, up a steep escarpment, and up again to the summit 3,000 feet above sea level. Then he turned to Rhea Workman, a graduate student in the WHOI/MIT Joint Program, and said, “We’re going up where?”
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Rapid Response
The earthquakes were coming fast and frequent, as many as 50 to 70 an hour. On the morning of Sunday, Feb. 28, undersea hydrophones began detecting the most intense swarm of earthquakes to occur in the last three years along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, about 200 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast.
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Voyages into the Antarctic Winter
At the extreme ends of the Earth, Antarctica is a vast, rocky continent, mostly ice-covered and barren. Surrounding Antarctica, the Southern Ocean is equally vast, cold, and ice-covered. But unlike the land, it teems with life, ranging from microscopic plankton to top predators: whales, seals, penguins, fish, and sea birds.
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