Research Highlights
Oceanus Magazine
The mountains rise, are lashed by wind and weather, and erode. The rivers carry mud and debris from the mountains into the ocean, where they settle onto the relatively tranquil seafloor and are preserved. The sediments bear evidence about where they came from, what happened to them, and when. By analyzing, measuring, and dating these seafloor sediments, scientists can piece together clues to reconstruct when and how fast their mountain sources rose to great heights millions of years ago, and how the climate and other environmental conditions may have changed in response.
Jules Verne wrote about a way to journey to the center of the earth, but unfortunately, we haven’t found it yet. So we really don’t know what happens deep inside our planet.
Poets and philosophers have celebrated the timelessness of the land around us for eons, but the solid Earth is actually a very dynamic body. Great tectonic plates are in constant motion at Earth’s surface.
The next great leap in our understanding of the earth-ocean system will require us to put our “eyes” and “ears” in the ocean to observe the dynamic processes going on there as they are happening, in real time.
News Releases
A new study investigates how the influence of low gravity, as found on ocean worlds in our solar system, impacts flow of water and heat below their seafloors.
MIT, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution researchers find wave activity on Saturn’s largest moon may be strong enough to erode the coastlines of lakes and seas.
Ocean scientists discovered the new deep-sea hydrothermal vent sites on the seafloor at 2,550 meters (8366 feet, or 1.6 miles) depth.
Woods Hole, MA – A team of scientists led by a Tulane University oceanographer and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has found that deposits deep under the ocean floor reveal a way to measure the ocean oxygen level and […]
Woods Hole, Mass. -Evidence of climate change in the North Atlantic during the last 1,000 years can be seen in the deep ocean, according to a newly published paper led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and […]
News & Insights
In April 2023, scientists diving in the human-occupied submersible Alvin discovered extensive, ancient deep-sea coral reefs within the Galápagos Marine Reserve.
This week, NASA’s Perseverance Rover lands on Mars to continue the search for life on the Red Planet. At the same time, WHOI scientists and engineers are applying their experience exploring the deepest parts of planet Earth to the quest […]
WHOI researchers are now investigating the feasibility of towing icebergs to alleviate water shortages.
Ocean scientists leverage game-changing technologies to improve our understanding of the global ocean’s most dangerous earthquake faults and enable more advanced warnings for seismic risk.
As glaciers melt at unprecedented rates, WHOI’s Simon Pendleton is looking back to historical records to predict whether this new cool runoff will slow ocean circulation and cool the northern hemisphere––findings which could mean adjustments to some climate predictions.