A close-up look at an uncommon underwater eruption
On July 18, 2012, passengers on an airline flight over the Southwest Pacific Ocean glimpsed something unusual—a raft of floating rock known as pumice that indicated an underwater volcanic eruption had...
View ArticleScientists find surprising evidence of rapid changes in the Arctic
Scientists have found surprising evidence of rapid climate change in the Arctic: In the middle of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole, they discovered that the levels of radium-228 have almost doubled...
View ArticleRadioactivity lingers from 1946-1958 nuclear bomb tests
Scientists have found lingering radioactivity in the lagoons of remote Marshall Island atolls in the Pacific Ocean where the United States conducted 66 nuclear weapons tests in the 1940s and 1950s.
View ArticleScientists find new source of radioactivity from Fukushima disaster
Scientists have found a previously unsuspected place where radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster has accumulated—in sands and brackish groundwater beneath...
View ArticleDispersants improved air quality for responders at Deepwater Horizon
A study published Aug. 28, 2017, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences adds a new dimension to the controversial decision to inject large amounts of chemical dispersants immediately...
View ArticleRe-envisioning underwater imaging
The Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory (AIVL) at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) working with Marine Imaging Technologies has developed a revolutionary new multi-function,...
View ArticleFinding new homes won't help Emperor penguins cope with climate change
If projections for melting Antarctic sea ice through 2100 are correct, the vanishing landscape will strip Emperor penguins of their breeding and feeding grounds and put populations at risk. But like...
View ArticleMore frequent extreme ocean warming could further endanger albatross
As Earth warms due to human-caused climate change, extreme climatic events like heat waves, droughts, and spikes in ocean temperatures have increased and are projected to become even more common by the...
View ArticleTravel distances of juvenile fish key to better conservation
Marine reserves—sections of the ocean where fishing is prohibited—promote coral reef sustainability by preventing overfishing and increasing fish abundance and diversity. But to be effective, they need...
View ArticleTracing the puzzling origins of clinging jellyfish
For such small and delicate creatures, they can pack mighty painful stings. Known as clinging jellyfish because they attach themselves to seagrasses and seaweeds, Gonionemus is found along coastlines...
View ArticleVolcanic arcs form by deep melting of rock mixtures
Beneath the ocean, massive tectonic plates collide and grind against one another, which drives one below the other. This powerful collision, called subduction, is responsible for forming volcanic arcs...
View ArticleCorals die as global warming collides with local weather in the South China Sea
In the South China Sea, a 2°C rise in the sea surface temperature in June 2015 was amplified to produce a 6°C rise on Dongsha Atoll, a shallow coral reef ecosystem, killing approximately 40 percent of...
View ArticleA new long-term ecological research site announced for the northeast U.S. shelf
The Atlantic Ocean off the Northeast U.S. coast is known for its productive fisheries and abundant harvests. As in other coastal oceans, human activities, short-term environmental variability, and...
View ArticlePanel to discuss deep-sea mining at AAAS Meeting
Home to an immense diversity of marine life, the deep ocean also contains valuable minerals with metals such as nickel, copper, cobalt, manganese, zinc, and gold, and rare-earth elements used in...
View ArticleFirst measurement of nitrogen removal by local shellfish
Towns along Cape Cod and the Islands are looking to shellfish not only as tasty culinary treats, but also for help cleaning up waters degraded by excess nitrogen in the region.
View ArticleAntarctic bottom waters freshening at unexpected rate
In the cold depths along the sea floor, Antarctic Bottom Waters are part of a global circulatory system, supplying oxygen-, carbon- and nutrient-rich waters to the world's oceans. Over the last decade,...
View ArticleSalty oceans can forecast rain on land
At this week's American Geophysical Union meeting, a team of researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) presented their latest research findings on the long-range predictions of...
View ArticleNew studies take a second look at coral bleaching culprit
Scientists have called superoxide out as the main culprit behind coral bleaching: The idea is that as this toxin build up inside coral cells, the corals fight back by ejecting the tiny energy- and...
View ArticleNew study explains mysterious source of greenhouse gas methane in the ocean
For decades, marine chemists have faced an elusive paradox. The surface waters of the world's oceans are supersaturated with the greenhouse gas methane, yet most species of microbes that can generate...
View ArticleStudy reveals previously unknown component of whale songs
Researchers have known for decades that whales create elaborate songs, sometimes projecting their calls for miles underwater. A new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), however,...
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