How the Ocean Works
Sentry Completes Its 500th Dive
WHOI’s free-swimming robot Sentry completed its 500th dive on October 16, 2018, off the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. The autonomous underwater vehicle has used its sonar systems to help scientists map the seafloor, track the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, locate the voyage data recorder on the sunken El Faro cargo ship, and carry out advanced research on many other missions to help us better understand our ocean and our planet.
Searching for ‘Super Reefs’
Some corals are less vulnerable to ocean acidification. Can the offspring from these more resilient…
The Current that Feeds the Galápagos
A small fleet of robotic undersea vehicles paints the first detailed picture of a vast…
Journey to the Bottom of the Sea
My eyelids were tightly pressed down as I mustered all the tricks I could think…
Marshes, Mosquitoes, and Sea Level Rise
In the 1930s, the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project dug approximately 1,500 miles of ditches…
Can We Improve Monsoon Forecasts?
Scientists are exploring the ocean to gain new insights into forecasting the still-unpredictable monsoon rains…
Life at the Edge
What makes the shelf break front such a productive and diverse part of the Northwest…
A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Ocean
Like someone monitoring the traffic flow on a road system, MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student…
Forecasting Where Ocean Life Thrives
The ocean, like the atmosphere, has "fronts," and it's hardly quiet on them. In fact,…
A Change Has Come in the Arctic
On a long voyage across the Arctic Ocean, an MIT-WHOI graduate students finds chemical clues…
The Discovery of Hydrothermal Vents
In 1977, WHOI scientists made a discovery that revolutionized our understanding of how and where…
A Long Trail of Clues Leads to a Surprise About Oil Spills
Scientists followed evidence from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill to discover an unexpected phenomenon.
Reassessing Guidelines for Oil Spill Cleanups
A new discovery could change the way officials approach oil spill cleanups.
Mission to the Ocean Twilight Zone
The twilight zone is a part of the ocean 660 to 3,300 feet below the…
Industrial krill fishing
The twilight zone’s biological abundance makes it an attractive target for commercial fishing operations and…
How Is the Seafloor Made?
An ultrasound for the Earth? Using sound waves, a graduate student peers into the crystalline…
Up in the Sky!
Nope, it’s not a bird or a plane. It’s a drone on a scientific mission…
Taking Earth’s Inner Temperature
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution wasn’t an obvious fit for Emily Sarafian. “I always felt a…
Will Oxygen in the Ocean Continue to Decline?
The living, breathing ocean may be slowly starting to suffocate. The ocean has lost more…
Did Dispersants Help During Deepwater Horizon?
In the heat of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, U.S. government and industry responders had…
Pop Goes the Seafloor Rock
WHOI scientists used the human-occupied submersible Alvin and the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry to explore a surprising discovery: gas-filled…