News Releases
Beach Sand Formations Tell Tales of Past Storms
Geologists have recently devised a new method for reconstructing the history of severe storms along the coast: examine the steep slopes and cliffs left behind when severe wind and water…
Read MoreRobotic Vehicle Recovers Instruments and Data Locked in a Lava Flow
A lot of ocean science equipment goes into the water and never comes back. Some of it was intended to stay; other times, the sea claims it by force. Recently…
Read MoreHurricane Katrina’s Flood Legacy Does Not Include Disease
When the levees broke in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, officials feared that Lake Pontchartrain might be infiltrated with disease-causing microbes from a “toxic gumbo” of water, polluted sediments, and…
Read MoreIce-Covered Arctic Lakes May Harbor Signs of Climate Change
Arctic coastal environments are some of the most vulnerable to climate change. A team of WHOI researchers visited Canada’s Mackenzie River Delta in April 2007 to find out just how…
Read MoreOcean’s “Twilight Zone” Plays Important Role in Climate Change
A major study has shed new light on the dim layer of the ocean called the “twilight zone”where mysterious processes affect the ocean’s ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide…
Read MoreBuried, Residual Oil is Still Affecting Wildlife Decades After a Spill
Nearly four decades after a fuel oil spill polluted the beaches of Cape Cod, researchers have found the first compelling evidence for lingering, chronic biological effects on a marsh that…
Read MoreResearchers Setting Up Observatories to Examine Arctic Changes from Under the Ice
Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are venturing this month to the North Pole to deploy instruments that will make year-round observations of the water beneath the Arctic…
Read MoreArctic Websites to Take Students, Museum Visitors, and Web Surfers to the Ends of the Earth
Beginning April 18, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), in partnership with eight museums across the United States, will bring the excitement of polar research and discovery to students, teachers,…
Read MoreScientists Discover First Seafloor Vents on Ultraslow-Spreading Ridge
Scientists have found one of the largest fields of seafloor vents gushing super-hot, mineral-rich fluids on a mid-ocean ridge that, until now, remained elusive to the ten-year hunt to find them.
Read MoreResearch Project hopes to answer Global Climate Questions
CONTACTS: Karinna Sjo-Gaber Joint Oceanographic Institutions 202-232-3900 Joanne Tromp WHOI Media Relations 508-289-3340 The impacts of natural climate variability and the threat of anthropogenic climate change are issues that are…
Read MoreShould We Pump Iron to Slow Climate Change?
One of the solutions offered for the global greenhouse gas problem is the fertilization of the ocean; that is, spreading iron into the open ocean to promote the growth of…
Read MoreSeafloor bacteria are multi-tasking with the carbon cycle
Scientists have long known that microorganisms can use one of two different methods to convert carbon dioxide into a form that living things can use for energy. What they didn’t…
Read MoreClimate Change in the Bottom of a Lake
Climate is often discussed in global terms, but it is the regional and local effects that will matter most to everyday people. WHOI geologist Jeff Donnelly and colleagues are looking…
Read MoreResearchers Find Substantial Amount of Mercury Entering the Ocean through Groundwater
Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have found a new and substantial pathway for mercury pollution flowing into coastal waters. Marine chemists have detected much more dissolved mercury entering the ocean through groundwater than from atmospheric and river sources.
Read MoreIs U.S. Marine Aquaculture Economically Sustainable?
With growing global populations and ever-increasing demands for seafood, fish farms are expected to expand significantly over the next few decades. But is aquaculture economically sustainable? Do the benefits outweigh…
Read MoreGoing Virtual in Marine Biology Education
Whyvillians have a problem: harmful algae are threatening their beaches and coastal ecosystem. In order to investigate, understand, and mitigate the problem, citizens are turning to the Whyville Oceanographic Institution…
Read MoreJim Ledwell Awarded Agassiz Medal by National Academy of Sciences
Oceanographer Jim Ledwell of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has been selected as the winner of the 2007 Alexander Agassiz Medal, awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences…
Read MoreFirst-Ever Call from Alvin Submersible to International Space Station
Listen to the first call between ocean explorers and astronauts.
Read MoreThe Third Elisabeth and Henry Morss Jr. Colloquium
Media Advisory WHAT: Fire and Ice Climate Changes of the Past…and Future? A public debate on the lessons from a previous warm interval in Earth’s climate history The Third Elisabeth…
Read MoreIndependent Panel Recommends Strong, Clear Guidelines for Development of Marine Aquaculture in the United States
Congress should enact legislation to ensure that strong environmental standards are in place to regulate the siting and conduct of offshore marine aquaculture, according to an independent panel of leaders from scientific, policymaking, business, and conservation institutions. Organized by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Marine Aquaculture Task Force was charged with examining the risks and benefits of marine aquaculture and developing a set of national policy recommendations to guide future development in our oceans.
Read MoreJohn A. Whitehead Honored By American Meteorological Society
John A. Whitehead awarded AMS’s Stommel Award ?for his fundamental contributions to geophysical fluid dynamics and physical oceanography, for which his laboratory and observational studies of rotating hydraulic flows have been particularly illuminating.?
Read MoreEyes on the Ocean March 2007: A Photo Resource for the Media
Eggs for Breakfast This egg sac of Euchaeta norvegica, a copepod, turned up in researchers’ plankton nets as they were being towed by the Albatross IV through the waters…
Read MoreScientists “See” New Ocean Floor Just Before and After It Is Created
A multidisciplinary research team from six institutions has for the first time successfully anticipated and then chronicled a seafloor eruption along the global mid-ocean ridge, the most active volcanic system on Earth. The event along the East Pacific Rise has provided researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) with a rare opportunity to observe what happens in the immediate aftermath of an eruption.
Read MoreNobumichi Shimizu Has Been Named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Nobumichi Shimizu of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as a fellow is an…
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