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Research Highlights

Oceanus Magazine

shells

Ancient seas, future insights

July 10, 2025

WHOI scientists study the paleo record to understand how the ocean will look in a warmer climate

shark teeth

Hope in fossilized fish bits

September 19, 2024

Abundant life in hotter ancient seas gives one paleontologist optimism for the future

underwater paddle board

Counting on Corals

June 20, 2024

As struggling reefs put a squeeze on Belize’s Blue Economy, could heat-tolerant corals be the answer?

Joides Resolution

Unlocking the Earth’s time capsule

November 2, 2023

Mantle rocks and fluids from one of the final expeditions on the R/V JOIDES Resolution will provide insights into how Earth was formed—and maybe how life began—for generations of scientists

Paddling Illustration

Paddling an angry, ancient ocean

May 24, 2023

If ancient Beringians got to the Americas by boat, it couldn’t have been easy

News Releases

Study Offers Economical Solutions for Maintaining Critical Delta Environments

December 9, 2013

Millions of people across the world live or depend on deltas for their livelihoods. Formed at the lowest part of a river where its water flow slows and spreads into the sea, deltas are sediment-rich, biodiverse areas, a valuable source…

New Explanation for Slow Earthquakes on San Andreas

June 3, 2013

New Zealand’s geologic hazards agency reported this week an ongoing, “silent” earthquake that began in January is still going strong. Though it is releasing the energy equivalent of a 7.0 earthquake, New Zealanders can’t feel it because its energy is…

Scientists Find Possible Solution to an Ancient Enigma

May 28, 2013

The widespread disappearance of stromatolites, the earliest visible manifestation of life on Earth, may have been driven by single-celled organisms called foraminifera. The findings, by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI); Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the University of Connecticut;…

Scientists Explore Roots of Future Tropical Rainfall

May 19, 2013

How will rainfall patterns across the tropical Indian and Pacific regions change in a future warming world? Climate models generally suggest that the tropics as a whole will get wetter, but the models don’t always agree on where rainfall patterns…

The Black Sea is a Goldmine of Ancient Genetic Data

May 6, 2013

Black Sea, sediment, genetic data, past climate, Strait of Bosphorus, Liviu Giosan, Marco Coolen, paleo, DNA, dinocysts, dinoflagellate

News & Insights

Scientists tap ‘secret’ fresh water under the ocean

September 12, 2025

First-of-its-kind research expedition studies massive freshwater aquifer under the ocean floor off Cape Cod

The Search for Life

February 17, 2021

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…

greenland ice

Will melting glaciers cool the climate?

July 29, 2020

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.

Art Maxwell

Celebrating an oceanographic life

July 1, 2020

WHOI looks back at the legacy of co-founder of MIT-WHOI Joint Program, former Director of Research and Provost at WHOI, Art Maxwell

Working from home: Chris German

April 30, 2020

As I reached the end of April, I realized that too much of my time was getting consumed by zoom calls and email in a bid to over-compensate for not being able to interact with people on-site at WHOI. So…

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