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WHOI Science Mission to Study Deepwater Horizon Spill Using Mass Spectrometry and AUV Sentry

June 23, 2010

A multidisciplinary team of investigators from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution embarked June 17 on a twelve-day research effort in the Gulf of Mexico aboard the R/V Endeavor, conducting three simultaneous projects funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF) “RAPID” program.…

Sharks sniff out their prey, one nostril at a time

June 21, 2010

It turns out the old saying is right — the nose really does know. And when it comes to sharks, the nostrils are particularly discriminating. Combined with the ability to detect underwater vibrations, sharks are able to zero in on…

WHOI Participates in Meeting Aimed at Finding Solutions to Control or Stop Oil Spill

June 17, 2010

On June 1, 2010, members of the staff of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) participated in a meeting at the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., to consider possible alternative solutions to capping or controlling the flow of…

Revolutionary Communications System Promises New Generation of Untethered, Undersea Vehicles

June 17, 2010

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) engineers and scientists are employing a combination of new undersea technologies to re-define how we think of tethered, remotely operated vehicles. Using the 11,000 meter-rated Nereus hybrid remotely operated vehicle (HROV) as a test platform, engineers at WHOI recently demonstrated a new system that integrates acoustics with optics. This achievement, they say, opens the way to new opportunities in communications between untethered remotely operated vehicles (UTROVs) and their human operators?literally ?cutting the cord? for undersea exploration.

WHOI Scientist Takes Comprehensive Look at Human Impacts on Ocean Chemistry

June 17, 2010

Numerous studies are documenting the growing effects of climate change, carbon dioxide, pollution and other human-related phenomena on the world?s oceans. But most of those have studied single, isolated sources of pollution and other influences. Now, a marine geochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has published a report in the latest issue of the journal Science that evaluates the total impact of such factors on the ocean and considers what the future might hold.

WHOI Joins Consortium to Study, Minimize Effects of Gulf Oil Spill

June 14, 2010

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is partnering with two Louisiana institutions to determine the myriad impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil discharge into the Gulf of Mexico and to devise and implement possible solutions to the disaster.

Rita Colwell to speak at MIT/WHOI Joint Program Commencement June 5 at WHOI

June 3, 2010

Rita R. Colwell, Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University and former Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), will give the commencement address June 5 at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to the 2010 graduates of the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography and Applied Ocean Sciences and Engineering.

WHOI Study Calculates Volume and Depth of the World?s Oceans

May 18, 2010

How high is the sky? Scientists have a pretty good handle on that one, what with their knowledge of the troposphere, stratosphere an the other ?o-spheres.? Now, thanks to new work headed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), they are closing in on the other half of that age-old query: How deep is the ocean?

Amy Bower

WHOI’s Amy Bower Wins Unsung Heroine Award

May 18, 2010

Inspiration can come from unexpected sources. For Amy Bower, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), it was triggered by a mundane-sounding requirement entitled ?Criterion 2,? part of a standard research grant proposal to the National Science Foundation in 2004.

WHOI Selected to Operate Newest Navy Research Ship

May 18, 2010

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has been informed by the US Navy’s  Office of Naval Research (ONR) that it has been selected to operate AGOR 27, one of two new Ocean Class research vessels to be built by the…

WHOI scientists find ancient asphalt domes off California coast

April 25, 2010

They paved paradise and, it turns out, actually did put up a parking lot. A big one. Some 700 feet deep in the waters off California?s jewel of a coastal resort, Santa Barbara, sits a group of football-field-sized asphalt domes unlike any other underwater features known to exist. About 35,000 years ago, a series of apparent undersea volcanoes deposited massive flows of petroleum 10 miles offshore. The deposits hardened into domes that were discovered recently by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and UC Santa Barbara (UCSB).

James E. Cloern Wins Ketchum Award

April 16, 2010

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has chosen James E. Cloern, a senior research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey for the last 34 years, as the recipient of the 2010 Bostwick H. Ketchum Award.

Long-Distance Larvae Speed to New Undersea Vent Homes

April 12, 2010

Working in a rare, ?natural seafloor laboratory? of hydrothermal vents that had just been rocked by a volcanic eruption, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and other institutions have discovered what they believe is an undersea superhighway carrying tiny life forms unprecedented distances to inhabit the post-eruption site.

Now in Broadband: Acoustic Imaging of the Ocean

April 1, 2010

Researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have developed two advanced broadband acoustic systems that they believe could represent the acoustic equivalent of the leap from black-and-white television to high-definition color TV. For oceanographers, this could mean a major upgrade…

WHOI Expertise, Technology, Tapped for Search for Air France Flight 447

March 25, 2010

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is part of an international sea search operation formed to locate the deep-sea wreck site of Air France Flight 447 and to retrieve the flight recorders from the Airbus A 330.

Cape Broadband Network to Benefit Woods Hole Institutions

March 12, 2010

WOODS HOLE, MA—Woods Hole scientists are hailing last week’s announcement of $32 million in federal stimulus funds awarded to the OpenCape Corporation to construct a new broadband network across southeastern Massachusetts. The project, which will consist of a wireless network,…

Pioneering Deep-Sea Robot Lost at Sea

March 9, 2010

A pioneering deep-sea exploration robot—one of the first successful submersible vehicles that was both unmanned and untethered to surface ships—was lost at sea Friday, March 5, on a research expedition off the coast of Chile. The 15-year-old Autonomous Benthic Explorer,…

Chile Quake Occurred in Zone of “Increased Stress”

March 1, 2010

The massive, 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile Feb. 27 occurred in an offshore zone that was under increased stress caused by a 1960 quake of magnitude 9.5, according to geologist Jian Lin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Researchers Issue Outlook for a Significant New England ‘Red Tide’ in 2010

February 24, 2010

Today, scientists from the NOAA-funded Gulf of Maine Toxicity (GOMTOX) project issued an outlook for a significant regional bloom of a toxic alga that can cause ‘red tides’ in the spring and summer of this year, potentially threatening the New…

Optical system promises to revolutionize undersea communications

February 23, 2010

In a technological advance that its developers are likening to the cell phone and wireless Internet access, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) scientists and engineers have devised an undersea optical communications system that?complemented by acoustics?enables a virtual revolution in high-speed undersea data collection and transmission.