Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Seismic Lab aboard R/V Marcus G. Langseth

Timeline of past drilling activities conducted by countries, private sector firms, government agencies, and academe that have helped to refine global gas hydrate estimates and possible future drilling and production testing

Airgun array aboard R/V Marcus G. Langseth

Schematic showing the general setting of seeps on the US Atlantic margin and related processes, such as gas hydrate degradation, groundwater seepage, leakage through fractured rocks, or emissions from the seafloor overlying salt diapirs. Pockmarks shown in white, and the nominal updip limit of gas hydrate stability is represented by the dashed black line. Analyses

Sample preparation and processing area in the K.O. Emery Geotechnical Wing at the Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center, Woods Hole, MA

Marinna Martini prepares to deploy a NIMBBLE from the R/V Connecticut south of Martha's Vineyard

A Sontek IQ ADCP measures depth and velocity of a salt marsh creek (Cape Cod, MA)

Jen Suttles collects water samples from a salt marsh tidal creek (East Falmouth, MA) for laboratory analysis of total organic carbon.  These samples will be compared to data recorded by instrumentation deployed in an adjacent tidal creek as part of research efforts to quantify carbon dynamics in coastal ecosystems

The Salt Marsh Observatory at Sage Lot Pond in the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve serves as an important platform for research in coastal salt marshes. Infrastrucutre in this marsh allows researchers to access sites while maintaining habitat and platform health. The yellow “boardwalk” provides research access while minimizing impact on the marsh platform

 Sara Zeigler (USGS) uses the smartphone data collection app ‘iPlover’ to classify the landscape characteristics in an area immediately surrounding a piping plover nest (here, protected with a black mesh predator exclosure).

USGS scientist Sara Zeigler holds piping plover chicks while working in the field with members of the Virginia Tech Shorebird Program. Virginia Tech scientists capture and band piping plover chicks and adults each year along the Atlantic coast in order to monitor population survival, reproduction, and movement (