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Groundwater and the Ocean

Groundwater and the Ocean

Groundwater comes from precipitation that falls on land. Some of this water evaporates into the atmosphere, gets taken up by plants, or flows into streams, but some infiltrates into the…

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Buff Mussels

Buff Mussels

These deep-sea mussels were collected on an Alvin dive to the Florida Escarpment in the Gulf of Mexico. This rocky platform, 1.6 miles below the surface, is made of long-dead…

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What Lies Under the Beach?

What Lies Under the Beach?

A team of international scientists led by Ken Buesseler at WHOI dug pits to sample sand and groundwater at a popular surfing beach in Yotsukura, Japan, for residual radioactivity released…

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Lingering Radioactivity

Lingering Radioactivity

A research team led by WHOI scientists collects samples of groundwater from a well on Enewetak Atoll, one of the tiny Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean (from left, WHOI…

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Hot Spots on the River

Hot Spots on the River

WHOI scientists used a drone equipped with a thermal imaging sensor to create this image (inset) of a section of the Coonamessett River watershed in Falmouth, Mass. The thermal image…

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Digging for Radioactivity

Digging for Radioactivity

Former WHOI post-doctoral scientist Virginie Sanial sampled groundwater beneath beaches in Japan to look for radioactive cesium-137 from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant accident. To her surprise, she and colleagues found…

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Beneath the Surface

Beneath the Surface

Members of the lab run by WHOI chemist Matt Charette installed equipment near the city of Sendai during a trip to Northeast Japan to collect groundwater samples. Charette and WHOI colleague Ken Buesseler recently…

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Coral Investigators

Coral Investigators

Researchers Paul Henderson (left) and Luis Vasquez-Bedoya collect coral samples from a large reef in the waters off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Corals build their skeletons over time from calcium carbonate…

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Where Has All the Radioactivity Gone?

Where Has All the Radioactivity Gone?

WHOI geochemist Matt Charette (right) collects samples of groundwater from a well on Enewetak Atoll, a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, along with WHOI researcher Paul Henderson (left) and…

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Thermal Eye in the Sky

Thermal Eye in the Sky

WHOI postdoctoral investigator Erika Johnson prepares to launch an aerial drone to survey the Coonamessett River in Falmouth, Mass. With its thermal camera, the drone can identify potential groundwater springs—which…

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Summer Studies

Summer Studies

Each summer, undergraduates from around the world come to WHOI to learn about ocean science. The summer fellowship, which started in 1959, gives visiting students the opportunity to get hands-on…

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Mobilized Mercury

Mobilized Mercury

WHOI Postdoctoral Scholar Priya Ganguli worked with Woods Hole Partnership Education Program (PEP) student Kelly Luis this summer to test groundwater from nearby Mosquito Creek for methylmercury. Septic systems in…

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Mercury Rising?

Mercury Rising?

Every summer, up to 15 college students get to work side-by-side with WHOI researchers as part of the Partnership Education Program (PEP), a program founded by six science institutions in Woods…

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Beach Day

Beach Day

In 2013, WHOI chemist Ken Buesseler went to Japan, where he collected samples of groundwater and beach sands as part of his and chemist Matt Charette’s work tracking the spread…

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Hole in One

Hole in One

WHOI geologist Jeff Donnelly and research assistant Richard Sullivan recently joined Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) geologist Pete van Hengstum and undergraduate student Tyler Winkler in collecting cores from Thatchpoint Bluehole. It…

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Buff Mussels

Buff Mussels

These deep-sea mussels were collected on an Alvin dive to the Florida Escarpment in the Gulf of Mexico. This rocky platform, 1.6 miles below the surface, is made of long-dead…

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Day at the Beach

Day at the Beach

Members of the lab run by WHOI chemist Matt Charette installed equipment on a beach during a recent trip to Northeast Japan. In addition to collecting groundwater samples near the…

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A Drop in the Ocean

A Drop in the Ocean

Viewed from outer space, Earth has been called the Blue Planet. But if you could pull all the water in the ocean, the atmosphere, groundwater and surface water into a ball,…

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Coral Archives

Coral Archives

Researchers Paul Henderson (left) and Luis Vasquez-Bedoya collect coral samples from a large reef in the waters off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Corals build their skeletons over time from calcium carbonate and…

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The River Styx?

The River Styx?

WHOI researchers Paul Henderson (left) and Matt Charette prepare to enter a cenote, or natural sinkhole, near Puerto Morelos, Mexico. The limestone bedrock in this region is very porous, with…

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Watch Your Step

Watch Your Step

WHOI researcher Paul Henderson and MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Meagan Gonneea pump water from holes that extend a meter or more into a rock outcrop beneath the subtidal zone along…

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