Polar Research
Nereid Under Ice explores Aurora hydrothermal vent field
The newly upgraded Nereid Under Ice, a hybrid remotely operated vehicle, is deployed from the Norwegian Icebreaker KronPrins Haakon to conduct its first deep ocean dives to 4,000 meters (over 13,000 feet) along the Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean.
Read MoreUnless warming is slowed, emperor penguins will be marching towards extinction
Emperor penguins are some of the most striking and charismatic animals on Earth, but a new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has found that a warming climate may render them extinct by the end of this century. The study, which was part of an international collaboration between scientists, published Nov. 7, 2019, in the journal Global Change Biology.
Read MoreScientists in Antarctica train to endure its brutal environment
It’s the coldest environment on Earth, with a mean temperature of minus-76 in winter and minus-18 in summer, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Breaking Ice: Science at the Top of the World
Since 2003, the Beaufort Gyre Exploration Project at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has given us an up-close look at one of the fastest-changing parts of the world. In 2018, the Ocean Media Institute at Montana State University sent Hugo Sindelar to join the annual expedition aboard the Canadian icebreaker Louis S. St. Laurent to see how the scientists and engineers involved in the project bring back their hard-earned data and to hear what they’ve learned so far.
Read MoreDoctoral Dissertation Defense of Thesis: Greenlandic Ice Archives of North Atlantic Common Era Climate
Matthew B. Osman, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Sponsored by: Academic Programs Office
Read MoreThe Transpolar Drift as a Source of Riverine and Shelf-Derived Trace Elements and Isotopes to the Central Arctic Ocean
Matt Charette, WHOI Sponsored by: MC&G Department
Read MoreOn Top of the World
A helicopter takes off with a sling-load of freshly-drilled ice cores taken from the 2000-meter-high summit of an ice cap…
Read MoreVitamin B12 Cycling and the Potential for Limitation in Antarctic Phytoplankton Communities
Deepa Rao, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Sponsored by: Biology Department
Read MoreSeal Spy
Drones helps WHOI scientist measure the body mass of mother and pup seals during lactation
Read MoreAn Emperor Penguin Colony in Antarctica Vanishes
In a Spin: New Insights into the Beaufort Gyre
Women on Ice
A ‘Ticking Time Bomb’ in the Arctic
Scientists discover that the amount of heat in a major Arctic Ocean circulation system has doubled over the past 30 years. If the temperatures continue to spike, it could eventually spell trouble for the ice above.
Read MoreSea Ice
The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy moves through pancake ice in the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea. (Photo by Carin Ashjian, Woods Hole Oceanographic…
Read MorePolar Life
By human standards, they are extreme environments. Yet life not only persists in the poles…it thrives.
Read MoreGlaciers & Ice Sheets
Polar Research
The polar regions are experiencing unprecedented environmental changes that have significant potential impacts on global climate, ecosystems, and society.
Read MoreArctic Ocean Circulation
The complex ocean circulation system in the Arctic—which impacts the entire food web—is in a delicate balance.
Read MoreSea Ice Glossary
Arctic ice can be divided into two different types, classified by their method of formation. Icebergs are chunks of floating…
Read MoreThe Many Forms and Shapes of Ice
Ice comes in many forms and shapes. Icebergs, like the one that sank the Titanic, can be as big as…
Read MoreThe Watery World of Salps
Somewhere in our galaxy is a planet mainly covered by ocean. Most of the animals that live on the planet…
Read MoreEmperor Penguins’ First Journey to Sea
The paper, published Jan. 17, 2019, in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, also highlights the unique connection between juvenile diving behaviors and a layer of the ocean, known as the thermocline, where warmer surface waters meet cooler deep waters below and where their prey likely gather in groups.
Read MoreGreenland Ice Sheet Melt ‘Off the Charts’ Compared With Past Four Centuries
Surface melting across Greenland’s mile-thick ice sheet began increasing in the mid-19th century and then ramped up dramatically during the 20th and early 21st centuries, showing no signs of abating, according to new research published Dec. 5, 2018, in the journal Nature. The study provides new evidence of the impacts of climate change on Arctic melting and global sea level rise.
Read MoreA Change Has Come in the Arctic
On a long voyage across the Arctic Ocean, an MIT-WHOI graduate students finds chemical clues that climate change has already had impacts on the region.
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