Press Room
The frequency of intense hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean appears to be closely connected to long-term trends in the El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation and the African monsoon, according to new research from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Geologists Jeff Donnelly and Jonathan Woodruff made that discovery while assembling the longest-ever record of hurricane strikes in the Atlantic basin.
B12an essential vitamin for land-dwelling animals, including humansalso turns out to be an essential ingredient for growing marine plants that are critical to the ocean food web and Earth’s climate, scientists have found.
The presence or absence of B12 in the […]
A research team led by Dennis McGillicuddy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has shown that episodic, swirling current systems known as eddies act to pump nutrients up from the deep ocean to fuel such blooms.
Two senior scientists in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have been honored for their outstanding contributions to understanding the makeup and dynamics of Earth’s ocean floor.
On May 12, marine geochemist Chris German […]
This week, researchers will begin direct monitoring of the rumblings of a submarine volcano in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. On May 6, a team of scientists led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) installed a new underwater earthquake monitoring […]
Coral reef fish hatchlings dispersed by ocean currents are able to make their way back to their home reefs again to spawn, says a groundbreaking study published today in the journal Science. The study, whose findings are considered a major […]
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 vulnerable. Marine geochemists Tim Eglinton, Daniel Montluçon, and Angie Dickens, […]
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 sewage. In the weeks after the flood, scientists from several […]
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 researchers used the WHOI-operated underwater vehicle Jason to take back […]
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 erode the beach. After hurricanes and Nor’easters make landfall, they […]
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 accumulating in our atmosphere.
The results of two international research expeditions […]
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 otherwise appears to have recovered.
Through a series of field observations […]
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 ice cap. Scientists will investigate how the waters in the […]
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, museum visitors, and web viewers. Virtual explorers will be able […]
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.
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 increasingly being brought to public attention. There is growing interest among the […]
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 floating microscopic plants. In at least 12 experiments over the […]
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 know until recently is that at least one form of […]
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.
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 closely at the regional effects of a past period of […]