How the Ocean Works
A Mooring in Iceberg Alley
WHOI scientists knowingly put a mooring in a fjord filled with icebergs near the terminus of a Greeland glacier. But it was their only way to learn if changing ocean conditions might be affecting how fast the glacier flowed into the ocean.
A Drop in the Ocean
How can you follow a wisp of water within the turbulent immensity of the ocean?…
Uncovering the Ocean’s Biological Pump
Dan Ohnemus clearly remembers the highlight of his fourth-grade class in Bourne, Mass. He and…
Drug Discovery in the Ocean
WHOI scientists are investigating a wide range of unexplored microbes that produce chemicals with potential…
Of The River and Time
The Fraser River in western Canada is flowing with tiny time capsules. Inside them is…
A River Runs Through It
The geochemical journey of carbon from the atmosphere to the river.
Detours on the Oceanic Highway
WHOI graduate student Isabela Le Bras is exploring newly discovered complexities of the Deep Western…
A Buoy’s Long Strange Trip
Since 2004, WHOI scientists have deployed ice-tether profilers (ITPs) in polar sea ice to monitor…
Can Squid Abide Ocean’s Lower pH?
To most people, squid are calamari: delicious when fried. But to WHOI researchers Max Kaplan…
Corals’ Indispensable Bacterial Buddies
Coral reefs, like human beings, may be superorganisms that depend on communities of microbes living…
Sassy Scallops
MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Meredith White examined how increasingly acidic ocean waters affect scallop…
A Quest For Resilient Reefs
Anne Cohen’s forte is corals. From the skeletons of massive corals, she has extracted long-term…
Lyme Disease Bacteria Have Quirky Needs
Scientists have confirmed that the pathogen that causes Lyme disease—unlike any other known organism—can exist…
The Retreat of the Gualas Glacier
Like many mountain glaciers, the Gualas Glacier in the Patagonian region of Chile has retreated…
The Glacial Chronicles
Graduate student Benjamin Linhoff spent several months in the summers of 2011 and 2012 studying…
River Quest
Max Holmes and Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink spend a lot of time upriver—one day bundled in a…
Storms, Floods, and Droughts
The source of the rain that filled your town reservoir, or flooded your nearby river,…
Bacteria Exhibit Altruistic Behavior
When it comes to bacteria protecting themselves, it’s all in the family. A new study…
Elemental Journeys
Humans have changed the face of the Earth by significantly altering the natural movements of…
Calculating Evaporation from the Ocean
Illustration by Amy Caracappa-Qubeck, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Imagine you turn on the tap in…
New Weather-Shifting Climate Cycle Revealed
Scientists have uncovered evidence for another natural cycle that, like El Niño and La Niña,…
Deep-sea Detectives
Links to related materials Mid-Ocean Ridges—Articles, illustrations, and video showing how new seafloor crust forms…