Scientists Voyage To The White Shark Café

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – Scientists are a step closer to understanding what draws white sharks each spring to the “White Shark Café”, an offshore aggregation area halfway between Mexico and Hawaii in the Pacific. An interdisciplinary research team from five Institutions led by Stanford University Marine Biologist Dr. Barbara Block, has just completed a month-long … Continued

Schmidt Ocean Institute Impact Award presented to Dr. Christopher Zappa

On October 3rd, 2017 Schmidt Ocean Institute presented the first Impact Award to Dr. Christopher Zappa at the celebration of five years of research on board Falkor. The Schmidt Ocean Institute Impact Award recognizes investigators who have sailed on research vessel Falkor and taken great risks to align their research with our mission, to transform ocean … Continued

Deep-Sea Exploration Gives New Insight and Discoveries in Largest and Deepest UNESCO World Heritage Site

Scientists return on Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor after conducting underwater robotic dives in never before visited waters in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). APIA, SAMOA – Seventeen underwater robotic dives have been made using ROV SuBastian, completing the first expedition of the islands and eastern seamounts of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area … Continued

Fossil coral reefs show sea-level rose in bursts during last warming

Nature Communications published an open access paper reporting the outcomes of a sea level rise study conducted on R/V Falkor in 2012. High resolution 3D maps of about a dozen of drowned coral reefs in the Gulf of Mexico acquired by R/V Falkor indicate that all fossil reefs are structured into multiple large flat terraces, separated by 3-4 meters … Continued

New Technology Gives Insight to Ocean Color for NASA Satellites

NASA Scientists return to land on Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor after making important observations of phytoplankton with new technology to support current and future satellite observations. NEWPORT, OREGON – A swath of new instruments were debuted during a 25 day expedition across the Pacific exploring a wide variety of oceanic ecosystems. The focus … Continued

Unexplored Ocean Depths Bustling with Life, Despite Extreme Conditions

APRA HARBOR, GUAM – A team of leading geologists, chemists, and biologists aboard research vessel Falkor have just finished surveying the largely unexplored Mariana Back-Arc for life at depths greater than 13,000 feet. Dr. David Butterfield, JISAO, University of Washington, and Dr. William Chadwick, NOAA-PMEL and Oregon State University, led the group to the Back-Arc; … Continued