College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences

About the OSU College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS): The college is renowned for research excellence and academic programs that span the earth, ocean and climate sciences, as well as the human dimensions of environmental change. CEOAS inspires scientific solutions for Oregon and the world.

Oregon State leads effort to expand ocean oxygen monitoring sensor use in fishing industry

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University researchers are leading an effort to refine the design and expand use of oxygen monitoring sensors that can be deployed in fishing pots to relay critical information on changing ocean conditions to the fishing industry.

The new project, a collaboration with industry and Tribal partners, is funded by a three-year, $1.2 million Ocean Technology Transition grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

OSU researchers receive NSF grant to develop robot swarm that can explore under ice shelves

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University researchers will lead a team of scientists and engineers on a three-year, $1.5 million project to develop and test a team of robots that could travel under ice shelves and collect critical measurements about the extent of ice cavities and surrounding ocean properties.

Consortium receives National Science Foundation funds to continue initiative that monitors ocean conditions in real time

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded a coalition of academic and oceanographic research organizations including Oregon State University a five-year, $220 million cooperative agreement to continue operating and maintaining the Ocean Observatories Initiative.

Socially vulnerable populations are disproportionately exposed to wildfires in the West, study finds

CORVALLIS, Ore. –  People experiencing a high degree of social vulnerability are also more exposed to wildfires in Oregon and Washington as wildfire risk increases, a new study shows.

Social vulnerability is a characteristic of a person or community, such as age, race or ethnicity or socioeconomic status, that affects their susceptibility to incur harm from a hazard.

New multi-institution earthquake center aims to advance understanding of Cascadia Subduction Zone

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University researchers will play key roles in a new multi-institution earthquake research center dedicated to the study of the Pacific Northwest’s Cascadia Subduction Zone, which is capable of producing earthquakes comparable to the largest recorded globally.

Visible work on OSU-led wave energy testing facility to begin in August

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The next step in Oregon State University’s construction of a wave energy testing facility off the Oregon Coast is likely to be visible to residents and visitors to the area in August.

Crews will work on shore and from a vessel anchored about a mile offshore from Driftwood Beach State Recreation Site south of Newport. The work is part of the construction of PacWave South, which will be the first pre-permitted, utility-scale, grid-connected wave energy test site in the United States.

National Science Foundation awards $4.6 million to OSU Marine and Geology Repository

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University has been awarded $4.6 million in grants from the National Science Foundation to continue operating the Marine and Geology Repository, one of the nation's largest repositories of oceanic sediment cores, for the next five years.

Funds will expand access to more than 22 miles of oceanic sediment cores and tens of thousands of marine rock specimens that reveal Earth’s history and document changes in climate, biology, volcanic and seismic activity, meteorite interactions and more.

Massive underwater plateau near Solomon Islands is younger and its eruption was more protracted than previously thought, research suggests

CORVALLIS, Ore. –The Ontong Java Plateau, a volcanically-formed underwater plateau located in the Pacific Ocean north of the Solomon Islands, is younger and its eruption was more protracted than previously thought, new research led by Oregon State University suggests.

The findings, just published in Science, also cast doubt on long-held assumptions that the formation of the plateau, which is roughly the size of Alaska, was the cause of a global deposit of black shale throughout the world’s oceans.