More than 65,000 students to hop on board MPL's R/V FLIP

Without leaving the classroom, more than 65,000 schoolchildren throughout the United States and five foreign countries will hop onboard a world-renowned research platform operated by MPL on Feb. 26 during Ball State University's award-winning Electronic Field Trip program. Read more here >>

MPL investigator helps explore the reefs of Bonaire

MPL research oceanographer Dale Stokes is part of a team of scientists, engineers, and technical divers involved in mapping the coral reefs around the Caribbean island of Bonaire using Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). The Bonaire mission has been funded by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as part of NOAA's mission to explore the ocean for the purpose of Discovery and the advancement of knowledge, as well as increase awareness and motivate the public to address sustainability of these unique ecosystems. Read more here >>

MPL Dep. Director, William Hodgkiss, receives Teaching Excellence Award

The Scripps Institution of Oceangraphy Excellence Awards Committee announced October 2, 2007 that MPL Dep. Director and research professor William Hodgkiss won the 2007 award for Teaching Excellence in Graduate Instruction. This award is based on student evaluations, and the nominees and subsequent winners are selected by a student vote and a student committee consisting of representatives from all Scripps curricular groups.

MPL graduate student Claire Debever receives best paper prize

The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) recently chose MPL graduate student Claire Debever's paper entitled "Higher frequency matched field processing", presented at a recent ASA meeting, with an award for best paper.

The paper was delivered at the 4th Joint meeting of the ASA and the Acoustical Society of Japan in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ms. Debever's paper placed first in the Underwater Acoustics Technical Committee Best Student Paper competition.

The work on which the paper is based was performed with the support of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), grant number N00014-06-1-0198.

Hurricane Katrina's tremendous energy detected as far away as California

MPL Researcher Peter Gerstoft and his group have detected seismic activity in California corresponding to pressure and surface waves generated by pounding ocean waves in the Gulf of Mexico during the height of the storm, 28 to 29 August 2005. The researchers used beam-forming techniques to back-project very low frequency seismic energy received at an array of stations in southern California. Body waves at double the ocean wave frequency (0.1 to 0.2 Hz) rattled deep through the earth from their source in shallow water east of New Orleans during the storm and for 9 hours after its landfall. Surface waves were also detected across the Gulf and tracked the ocean wave frequency and higher harmonics. The seismic surface waves mimicked the ocean wave pattern, with higher frequencies emanating from the eastern side and lower frequencies to the west of the eye. Thus, both surface and body seismic waves were generated in shallow water by breaking ocean waves from Katrina, but different physical mechanisms couple the water and ground motions that produce them. Read more about this research at the following sources:

Westward Migration,  Editors' Choice, Science, 29 September 2006

Hurricane Katrina's waves felt in California, New Scientist, 23 September 2006

When Katrina hit California, lay-paper about these observations.

Gerstoft, P., M. C. Fehler, and K. G. Sabra (2006), When Katrina hit California, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L17308, doi:10.1029/2006GL027270.

 

High-frequency acoustic recording package (HARP) disk/electronics compartment used to record ocean noises from the ocean bottom