Multimedia Items
Small Changes, Big Impacts
The pH scale, shown here, indicates the concentration of hydrogen ions (H+) in a liquid. Above pH=7, a fluid is alkaline; below 7, it is acidic. Seawater is slightly alkaline,…
Read MoreTiny, Delicate, Vulnerable
Drifting with currents, tiny swimming marine snails called pteropods (“wing-foot”) are an important source of food for fish, whales, and other marine animals. Also called “sea butterflies,” pteropods have shells…
Read MoreAction
In July 2013, researchers aboard the research vessel Melville deployed a set of moorings at Station PAPA in the Northeast Pacific. The instruments, including this acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP),…
Read MoreCore Knowledge
During a recent trip to Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, WHOI guest student Chris Maio assisted in the collection of sediment cores from the Beluga Slough salt marsh. The trip was funded…
Read MoreSitting Pretty
During dock trials in San Diego Harbor recently, the rebuilt and upgraded submersible Alvin underwent an incline test while attached to the stern of its support ship, R/V Atlantis. The test…
Read MoreField of Clams
Giant clams, some up to one foot long, line nooks in the seafloor off the Galápagos Islands where warm fluids flow up through cracks in rocks and feed the clams.…
Read MoreRemote Sensing
Marine chemist Chris Reddy recently joined a research cruise off the West Coast virtually via the new telepresence equipment installed in the Coleman and Susan Burke Ocean Observing Operations Room…
Read MoreWorking the Line
WHOI engineers Stephen Murphy and John Kemp (holding flashlight) assemble end-pieces for mooring cables destined to be used in the Ocean Observatory Iniative. The hollow stainless steel tubes are electromechanical…
Read MoreCatch of the Day
R/V Knorr Bosun Peter Liarikos and Shipboard Scientific Services Group technician Amy Simoneau release a catch of rock specimens collected with a dredge near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Scientists on the…
Read MoreHouse Call
In spring 2013, WHOI engineer Jeff Lord stopped in the middle of the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean to fix a buoy’s electronics. He and his colleagues, who study the upper…
Read MoreIt’s a Bird. It’s a Plane
After years of observing albatrosses on the high seas, WHOI oceanographer Phil Richardson combined his interests in waves, sailing, flying, and physics to figure how the large seabirds extract energy…
Read MoreOcean Toolbox
Marine chemist Zhaohui “Aleck” Wang recently tested an instrument he developed in collaboration with WHOI engineers for his research on ocean acidification and the carbon cycle. This all-in-one sensor package…
Read MoreKnife’s Edge
The long arm of Jason, the deep-diving remotely operated vehicle, was equipped with a serrated knife in 2012 to cut a mooring line 6,000 meters (nearly 4 miles) beneath the…
Read MoreShark Tail
Could a robotic vehicle follow a live, moving shark in the ocean? Engineers in WHOI’s Oceanographic Systems Lab took up that challenge, creating a system called SharkCam. It allowed a…
Read MoreUnexpected Guests
The WHOI ship Atlantis II tied up at the dock in Woods Hole on December 13, 1977, with 11 seamen rescued from the Puerto Rican freighter Ensenada on board. Sipping hot…
Read MoreExplorers in Training
Visitors to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insitution Ocean Science Exhibit Center take turns at navigating a radio controlled sub through a mock hydrothermal vent field. The activity allows visitors to…
Read MoreGulf Coast Beachcombers
Students and volunteers search a beach along the Gulf of Mexico for “sand paddies,” clumps of sand and oil. The sand paddies they collected were logged into a weathered oil…
Read MoreMaking Waves
WHOI geophysicist Jian Lin (right) with summer student Yen Joe Tan observe waves created during a tsunami experiment at Trunk River in Falmouth, Mass. Lin and colleagues have studied earthquakes…
Read MoreLine Check
Engineer Chris Lumping inspects a “line pack” of synthetic rope, looking for any tangles that might prevent it from unwinding smoothly. The line pack will be part of an assembly…
Read MoreWhat’s In a Name?
Although not yet officially christened, R/V Neil Armstrong recently received its name at the shipyard where it is under construction, in Anacortes, Washington. The 238-foot ship, scheduled to launch in…
Read MoreFinal Touches
One night on the WHOI dock in 2009, senior engineer Norm Farr and the optical communications team of engineers prepared the hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV) Nereus to record and…
Read MoreFrequent and Careful Work
Every few years since its launch, WHOI’s deep-diving human-occupied submersible Alvin undergoes a complete and thorough overhaul. In this archival image taken during a mid-1970s overhaul, engineer William “Skip” Marquet …
Read MoreStill There
In the summer of 2013, guest student Ferdinand Oberle collected samples of oil on a beach along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Each year since the Deepwater Horizon…
Read MoreWork Cut Out
WHOI research assistant Paul Henderson readied some of more than 600 filters for shipment to Ecuador in September 2013. Henderson and Falmouth High School student Andrew Franks spent more than…
Read More