Hazards
NOAA Webinar: Minutes Matter: Nature’s Warning Signs for Tsunami
Cindi Preller, NOAA’s National Weather Service Pacific Tsunami Warning Center Sponsored by: NOAA With Cindi Preller, NOAA’s National Weather Service…
Read MoreNOAA Webinar: Getting Prepared for Hurricane Season
John Cangialosi, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center Sponsored by: NOAA To register, please visit: https://register.gotowebinar.com/rt/2586095735301690123
Read MoreAOP&E Department Virtual Seminar: Coastal Hazards, Risks and Climate-Resilient Solutions
Borja Reguero, University of California, Santa Cruz Sponsored by: AOP&E Department Please join: https://zoom.us/j/97274223820?pwd=aU5xWUM3MkppVCtXcEltbVdyK1pQUT09 Meeting ID: 972 7422 3820 Password:…
Read MoreWhat did scientists learn from Deepwater Horizon?
Ten years after the Deepwater Horizon explosion caused the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, WHOI marine geochemists Elizabeth Kujawinski and Christopher Reddy review what they— and their science colleagues from around the world—have learned.
Read MoreNew geochemical tool reveals origin of Earth’s nitrogen
A new geochemical tool sheds light on the origin of nitrogen and other volatile elements on Earth, which may also prove useful as a way to monitor the activity of volcanoes
Read MoreHow Big Oil and Big Soda kept a global environmental calamity a secret for decades
The threat to human health is complex and poorly understood. “There are a lot more questions than answers at this point,” says Mark Hahn, a toxicologist at WHOI who studies microplastics.
ROV Jason captures underwater video during earthquake
In January and February 2020, scientists on R/V Atlantis explored hydrothermal vents on the Cayman Rise. They used the remotely operated vehicle Jason to get an up-close view of the vents and life around them. The vents lie on a seismically active part of the seafloor known as a mid-ocean ridge. Deep-sea shrimp swarm the vents, feeding on microbes that live on chemicals flowing from the vents. While they were there, a magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck just 100 miles away. Scientists will now be able to study how seismic activity affects hydrothermal vents and the life around them.
Read MoreSpock versus the volcano
Five hundred meters below the calm surface waters of the Aegean Sea off Santorini Island, Greece, lies an active submarine volcano. There, a decision-making robot equipped with artificial intelligence searches for life and danger.
Read MoreStudy weighs deep-sea mining’s impact on microbes
The essential roles that microbes play in deep-sea ecosystems are at risk from the potential environmental impacts of mining, according to a new paper. The study reviews what is known about microbes in these environments and assesses how mining could impact their important environmental roles.
Read MoreVolcano space robots are prepping for a wild mission to Jupiter
To build machines capable of plunging into the frozen oceans on Europa and Enceladus, Nasa tested out submersibles in one of Earth’s most inhospitable environments
Tremors of the deep sea
We can all imagine the devastation hurricanes bring ashore. Well it turns out that hurricanes could be just as devastating to denizens of the deep ocean.
Read MoreMysterious Tectonic Fault Zone Detected Off The Coast of California
Nearly 3,000 feet (900 metres) below the surface of Monterey Bay, a network of deep sea cables helps scientists to study marine life.
A Tiny Camera Could Help Shellfish Farmers Avoid Big Losses
Cape Cod’s shellfish farmers face many challenges, and one of the biggest is dealing with harmful algal blooms, which can damage shellfish and be poisonous for humans to ingest. But a new project at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is looking at a way to better manage this with the help of a tiny camera.
Toxic Algal Blooms Are Worsening with Climate Change
“Cyanobacteria grow quite well—better than almost everything else in those freshwater systems—the hotter it gets,” said Don Anderson, a senior scientist at WHOI.
The ghosts of ancient hurricanes live in Caribbean blue holes
South Andros Island, part of the Bahamian archipelago, is a sandy slice of paradise whose shores conceal buried geological treasures: blue holes. Hiding in the depths of these ethereal submarine sinkholes lay ancient sediment sandwiches whose layers betray the bygone passages of powerful hurricanes.
Why are birds and seals starving in a Bering Sea full of fish?
Federal and university scientists are trying to better understand why some birds and marine mammals have been unable to find enough food, and whether toxic algae blooms — increasing as the water warms — could have contributed or caused some of the die-offs.
In the Blue Holes of the Bahamas, Secrets of Hurricanes Past
Researchers have assembled a 1,500-year history of hurricanes in the Bahamas, based on sand and shell fragments pulled up from submarine caverns known as blue holes.
A Lagrangian View of Spring Phytoplankton Blooms
Shin Kida, Kyushu University Sponsored by: Physical Oceanography Department
Read MoreScientists have discovered stormquakes, where earthquakes and hurricanes collide
The study says that stormquakes are actually a fairly common occurrence, but they just sounded like seismic background noise and went undetected.
Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected
The general consensus of governmental agencies is that it takes polystyrene thousands of years to fully break down. But a new study shows that it may instead degrade in decades or centuries when exposed to sunlight.
Read MoreNOAA awards WHOI $2.9 million for harmful algal bloom research
NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science recently announced funding for 12 new research projects to better understand and predict harmful algal blooms (HABs) and improve our collective response to them.
Read MoreScientists Quantify Global Volcanic CO2 Venting; Estimate Total Carbon On Earth
Preparing to summarize and celebrate the 10-year Deep Carbon Observatory program at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington DC, Oct. 24-26, DCO’s 500-member Reservoirs and Fluxes team today outlined several key findings that span time from the present to billions of years past; from Earth’s core to its atmosphere, and in size from single volcanoes to the five continents.
The History of Ancient Hurricanes Is Written in Sand and Mud
Over the past year and as a student fellow in 2017, I have been working with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Jeffrey Donnelly, who uses sediment cores—tubes of sand and mud layers that are extracted from coastal lake beds—to track ancient cyclones in the Atlantic and, recently, in the islands of the South Pacific.
Climate Change on Cape Cod: At the Edge of a Warming World
In the 81 years since the 1938 storm, the sea level here has risen about a foot, said WHOI researcher Jeff Donnelly, and is now rising faster than it has in thousands of years.
