Current Projects
Ocean Twilight Zone
![OceanTwilightZone Ocean Twilight Zone](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/OceanTwilightZone-panorama-08f202e0d5e19a492849d02ae58ba1f2-.png)
Below the sunlit surface, there's a realm known as the ocean's "twilight zone." At 200 to 1000 meters below the surface, sunlight is barely a...
EXPORTS
![Exports Exports](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/Exports-panorama-8efb72722a7e431ac1238ecd1edc77b9-.png)
Ocean Exports is a large-scale NASA program with the goal of quantifying the export and fate of upper ocean net primary production using satellite observations...
GEOTRACES
![Geotraces Geotraces](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/Geotraces-panorama-6b784809b0dfdf09336a6edcadb56682-.png)
GEOTRACES is an international collaborative project studying marine biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their isotopes in the ocean. Trace elements, critical for marine life,...
Fukushima Contaminants
![graphics-Fukushima_2013-_DSC2418 Beneath the Surface
October 27, 2017
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 found a previously unsuspected place where radioactive material from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster has accumulatedin sands and brackish groundwater beneath beaches as much as 60 miles away. The sands took up and retained radioactive cesium originating from the disaster in 2011 and have been slowly releasing it back to the ocean.
Photo by Ken Buesseler © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/graphics-Fukushima_2013-_DSC2418-panorama-26f7844b2368385c74fb651c367070c3-.jpg)
Fukushima Contaminants On March 11, 2011 a 9.0-magnitude earthquake triggered a 15 m (45 ft) tsunami inundating the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP). This...
Older Projects
Are all traps created equal?
![graphics-Buesseler_Discovery-P1000414 Ken Buesseler (center) & Meg Estapa (right) ready to deploy an NBST](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/graphics-Buesseler_Discovery-P1000414-1024x575-landscape-bce64c760965a3e5813d9aa8c466a24e-.jpg)
Are All Traps Created Equal? This collaborative project took sediment and particle trap equipment to sea on the North Atlantic...
Uranium in Seawater
![NEUP Bottles NEUP Bottles](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/InstagramCapture_c7305b09-e331-46f3-ae58-d9d038d9bc4c-landscape-7e4bb9f2fb633b3df962080a39a2a725-.jpg)
Uranium in Seawater Overview of Research This project active from 2014 to 2018 built upon the efforts within the DOE's...
VERTIGO
![040703_squid_en Squids have not been very common in our net tows although this species was caught twice. Notice that it is clear; you can see right through its body and even its internal organs! This is another handy (non) color to be when trying to avoid predators in the inky darkness of the twilight zone. (Photo by Stephanie Wilson)](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/040703_squid_en-landscape-7d8a4b84e41f92a26d8004d1e9c58b14-.jpg)
VERTIGO - Ocean Particle Fluxes VERtical Transport In the Global Ocean- aka VERTIGO- was one of our largest and most...
Twilight Zone EXplorer
![tzex_img4 WHOI NBST being deployed](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/tzex_img4-landscape-47e8390e1d48dd8dfbb473a511ce4d3e-.jpg)
TZEX - Twilight Zone EXplorer Project Summary This project sets out to develop improved particle flux collectors and use these...
TENATSO-SIRENA
![tenatso_img1 An example from a short-term winter S-type dust plume above the eastern North Atlantic (SeaWiFS, February 2002, taken from Fisher et. al, 2007).](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/tenatso_img1-landscape-211092fcde5bfdcb8aac653da667a0be-.jpg)
TENATSO - Cape Verde time-series Establishing Long-term Ocean-atmospheric Observations on Cape Verde Observation is fundamental to understanding global change. Atmospheric...
Southern Ocean Iron Experiment
![graphics-To_IMS-Iron_fertilization Ocean iron fertilization.](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/graphics-To_IMS-Iron_fertilization-1024x804-landscape-36369cd3cd85c3cad126e3a6d9253194-.jpg)
Why Dump Iron into the Ocean? Overview In the late 1980's, the late John Martin advanced the idea that carbon...
EDDIES – Sargasso Sea
![projects_eddies From Sweeney et al., 2003.](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/projects_eddies-landscape-f8d04d651e3c7c446421ce0e03a3b82c-.gif)
EDDIES - Sargasso Sea "EDdy Dynamics, mIxing, Export, and Species composition" is the title of a new project looking at...
Southern Ocean Carbon
![ice_ship_close_315_42469 ice_ship_close_315_42469](https://cafethorium.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/bb-plugin/cache/ice_ship_close_315_42469-landscape-e65d2d2a062e6ccea00d671917471178-.jpg)
Southern Ocean Carbon Cycle: Ocean Carbon Cycle Studies off Antarctica Overview The Southern Ocean is defined as those waters south...