Deep-sea musings
Roboticist Gwyneth Packard on the need for ocean exploration today
Harnessing the ocean to power transportation
WHOI scientists are part of a team working to turn seaweed into biofuel
Casting a wider net
The future of a time-honored fishing tradition in Vietnam, through the eyes of award-winning photographer Thien Nguyen Noc
Gold mining’s toxic legacy
Mercury pollution in Colombia’s Amazon threatens the Indigenous way of life
How do you solve a problem like Sargassum?
An important yet prolific seaweed with massive blooms worries scientists
Ancient seas, future insights
WHOI scientists study the paleo record to understand how the ocean will look in a warmer climate
Rising tides, resilient spirits
As surrounding seas surge, a coastal village prepares for what lies ahead
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Our Ocean. Our Planet. Our Future.
Whistle! Chirp! Squeak! What does it mean?
Avatar Alliance Foundation donation helps WHOI researcher decode dolphin communication
We can’t do this alone
For marine chemist Adam Subhas, ocean-climate solutions don’t happen without community
How WHOI helped win World War II
Key innovations that cemented ocean science’s role in national defense
Life at the margins
Scientists investigate the connections between Ghana’s land, air, sea and blue economy through the Ocean Margins Initiative
Grits, storms, and cosmic patience
As storms stall liftoff, Europa Clipper Mission Team member Elizabeth Spiers patiently awaits the biggest mission of her life
New underwater vehicles in development at WHOI
New vehicles will be modeled after WHOI’s iconic remotely operated vehicle, Jason
Learning to see through cloudy waters
How MIT-WHOI student Amy Phung is helping robots accomplish dangerous tasks in murky waters
A rare black seadevil anglerfish sees the light
A viral video shows a denizen of the ocean’s twilight zone making an unusual trip to the surface
Unseen Ocean
Artist Janine Wong and scientist Jing He capture the art of currents in “Submesoscale Soup”
Five marine animals that call shipwrecks home
One man’s sunken ship is another fish’s home? Learn about five species that have evolved to thrive on sunken vessels
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Deep-sea amphipod name inspired by literary masterpiece
Name pays tribute to Cervantes’ Don Quixote and reinforces themes of sweetness and beauty
5 Takeaways for the Ocean from the COP29 Climate Conference
Explore the key outcomes from this year’s UN Climate Conference
Go with the flow
Mike Singleton, relief captain, R/V Neil Armstrong describes the intricate dance of navigating ocean currents during scientific expeditions
A gift for ocean research
Boater and oceanography enthusiast Steven Grossman supports innovative WHOI projects with $10 million donation
Nature’s Language
Using applied math (and chalk) to understand the dynamic ocean
Navigating new waters
The engineering team at the Ocean Observatories Initiative overcomes the hurdles of deploying the coastal pioneer array at a new site
Ocean in Motion
How the ocean’s complex and chaotic physics defines life on our planet
The case for preserving deep-sea biodiversity
WHOI biologist Annette Govindarajan offers her takeaways from the COP16 UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Colombia
An immersive twilight zone exhibit
An ARTECHOUSE and WHOI collaboration in Washington, D.C. is transporting visitors to a hidden layer of the ocean
The Cauldron Beneath the Seafloor
Just over 20 years ago, scientists exploring the mid-ocean ridge system first made the spectacular discovery of black smokers—hydrothermal chimneys made of metal sulfide minerals that vigorously discharge hot, dark, particulate-laden fluids into the ocean.
“Nothing Could Diminish the Excitement Of Seeing the Animals for the First Time”
The scientists who made the surprising discovery of teeming life around hydrothermal vents of the Galápagos Rift in 1977 were geologists and geochemists. They had not expected to find spectacular colonies of previously unknown, large animals on the deep seafloor.
The Big MELT
More than 95 percent of the earth’s volcanic magma is generated beneath the seafloor at mid-ocean ridges.
Mid-Atlantic Ridge Volcanic Processes
Long before the plate-tectonic revolution began in the 1960s, scientists envisioned drilling into the ocean crust to investigate Earth’s evolution.
Indian Ocean’s Atlantis Bank Yields Deep-Earth Insight
I never imagined I would spend six weeks of my life “wandering around” the seafloor exploring an 11 million year old beach, and it never occurred to me to look for a fossil island. But that’s what I did, and that’s what we found on two research voyages separated by more than a decade.
Melt Extraction from the Mantle Beneath Mid-Ocean Ridges
As the oceanic plates move apart at mid-ocean ridges, rocks from Earth’s mantle, far below, rise to fill the void, mostly via slow plastic flow.
Exploring The Global Mid-Ocean Ridge
There is a natural tendency in scientific investigations for increased specialization. Most important advances are made by narrowing focus and building on the broad foundation of earlier, more general research.
Discovery of “Megamullions” Reveals Gateways Into the Ocean Crust and Upper Mantle
urposes. From the end of the nineteenth into the first half of the twentieth century, drilling was used to penetrate the reef and uppermost volcanic foundation of several oceanic islands, and these glimpses of oceanic geology whetted the scientific community’s appetite for deeper and more complete data.
Ocean Seismic Network Seafloor Observatories
Our knowledge of the physical characteristics of Earth’s deep interior is based largely on observations of surface vibrations that occur after large earthquakes. Using the same techniques as CAT (Computer Aided Tomography) scans in medical imaging, seismologists can “image” the interior of our planet. But just as medical imaging requires sensors that surround the patient, seismic imaging requires sensors surrounding the earth.
The Women of FAMOUS
My FAMOUS story begins during my first year in graduate school at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
A Current Affair
oal of probing the earth’s inaccessible deep interior. But the technique remains something of a mystery even to many marine scientists. It has been used widely on land, particularly for regional-scale surveys, but only a few full-scale MT surveys have been carried out on the seafloor.
The Oceanic Flux Program
The predawn hours at sea have a unique feel—an eerie stillness, regardless of weather. This morning is no exception as the Bermuda Biological Station’s R/V Weatherbird II approaches the OFP (Oceanic Flux Program) sediment trap mooring some 75 kilometers southeast of Bermuda.