Exploring Atlantic seeps
AUV Sentry leads the way in mapping and monitoring methane bubbling from the seafloor
Is underwater noise from construction affecting the American Lobster?
WHOI’s Sensory Ecology Lab investigates whether an industrialized soundscape impacts the health of a New England icon
A once-in-a-generation dive into polar history
40 years after helping reveal the Titanic, Alvin returns to the North Atlantic to document two other legendary shipwrecks
A hadal zone mystery solved
An upside-down swimming isopod shows how tightly we are connected to the deep ocean
A mother seal dives
Follow a Weddell seal as her body adapts to foraging in deep, frigid waters
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A mummy, a myth, and the Titanic
A 1986 handwritten letter to Bob Ballard revisits one of the Titanic disaster’s strangest myths
Turning motion into power: Wave energy converters for sustainable ocean monitoring
In the rapidly evolving world of ocean technology, wave energy is emerging as a promising pathway toward…
The world’s most abundant fish once thrived in an extreme climate
Fossilized teeth show bristlemouth fish evolved during one of the ocean’s hottest periods
How a cargo ship is tracking hidden ocean life in the Atlantic
With funding support from CMA CGM, ocean observations aboard Bermuda Container Line’s M/V Oleander now include a window into microscopic life
Alvin vs. the swordfish
During a 1967 dive off Florida, a startled swordfish rammed the famed submersible Alvin—lodging its sword in the hull and forcing the crew to abort the mission
Inside Room 71: WHOI history in seven artifacts
Some of the technology, art, and gifts that tell the story of the institution’s early days
A scientist’s quest to find Earth’s oldest ice
After recovering ice that dates back 6 million years, Sarah Shackleton hopes to dig deeper into Earth’s history from a remote Antarctic moraine
It’s the most ocean-friendly map ever created. Why haven’t more people seen it?
Discover the Spilhaus Projection, a radical world map that reveals Earth as one connected ocean—and reshapes how we see the planet.
Luxury cruises with a side of climate science
A new partnership gives scientists rare access to remote Antarctic glaciers—and a new way to engage the public
The unseen toll of war on science
As the changing climate accelerates the spread of toxic algal blooms in the Arctic, the Russia–Ukraine war is cutting off critical international collaboration needed to understand and protect vulnerable ecosystems and communities.
The human cost of Brazil’s floods
New research maps social vulnerability after the 2024 deluge
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Tracking the hidden currents of Cape Cod Bay
Scientists are using drifters and ocean models to better understand how water, nutrients, and pollutants move through the bay
From ruin to reef
What Pacific wrecks are teaching us about coral resilience—and pollution
One researcher, 15,000 whistles: Inside the effort to decode dolphin communication
Scientists at WHOI analyze thousands of dolphin whistles to explore whether some sounds may function like words
Remembering Tatiana Schlossberg, a voice for the ocean
Environmental journalist and author Tatiana Schlossberg passed away after battling leukemia on December 30, 2025….
As the ocean warms, a science writer looks for coral solutions
Scientist-turned-author Juli Berwald highlights conservation projects to restore coral reefs
How an MIT-WHOI student used Google Earth to uncover a river–coral reef connection
Google Earth helps researcher decode how rivers sculpt massive breaks in coral reefs
A new underwater robot could help preserve New England’s historic shipwrecks
WHOI’s ResQ ROV to clean up debris in prominent marine heritage sites
Inside the Solomon Islands’ hidden mega coral — a 300-year-old ocean giant
WHOI’s Reef Solutions team journeys to the world’s largest coral colony
The little big picture
WHOI senior biologist Heidi Sosik on the critical need for long-term ocean datasets
Lessons from a lifetime of exploration
Award-winning ocean photographer Brian Skerry shares insights from a career spent around ocean life and science
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.
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.
How to See What Whales Hear
On summer nights, if you sit quietly at the edge of a field or watch…
Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle (HROV)
The oceans average two miles in depth and in some places plunge almost seven miles – deeper than Mount Everest is high. Researchers at WHOI are developing a new underwater robot to explore these depths. Until now, these places have been beyond the reach of conventional technology. View various Quicktime animations of the HROV below.
Big Trouble from Little Squirts
Welcome to the online version of Oceanus, the magazine that explores Earth’s last frontier. Oceanus delivers news and commentary on the meaning and value of ocean research, engineering, and education at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
A Lone Voice Crying in the Watery Wilderness
And speaking of whales, here is a story of whales speaking—or more precisely, one whale, with its own, distinctive 52-hertz voice.
A “Thinking Map” of North America
For geologist Brian Tucholke, creating a new Geologic Map of North America was a 23-year adventure. Published in February by the Geological Society of America (GSA), the map illustrates the geology of approximately 15 percent of Earth?s surface and spans an area from the North Pole to Venezuela, and from Ireland to Siberia.
Even Sperm Whales Get the Bends
It seemed only natural for deep-diving sperm whales to be immune from decompression illness, or the bends?the painful, sometimes fatal condition that human divers suffer when they surface too rapidly. But the whales may be as susceptible as land mammals, according to a new study by WHOI biologists.
MIT/WHOI Graduate Leads the World’s Tsunami Awareness Program
Kong, a 1990 graduate of the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering, was one of the first people in the world to learn the magnitude of the underwater earthquake off the coast of Indonesia.
Throwing DART Buoys into the Ocean
Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoys are the foundation of warning network
What Could a Tsunami Network Look Like in the Future?
The Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting (DART) system is battle-tested and operational, so it makes sense to use such buoys to address the immediate need for a tsunami network. Researchers at WHOI are concentrating on the next generation of multidisciplinary ocean observing platforms.
Building a Tsunami Warning Network
Since the great Indonesian earthquake and tsunami of December 26, 2004, policy-makers and scientists around the globe have been embracing a rare moment of public attention on the oceans, accelerating plans to create a comprehensive tsunami-warning network and to make citizens better prepared for the next massive wave. Another potent earthquake along the same fault on March 28, 2005, has increased that sense of urgency.