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Magnetic Technology

June 27, 2018

WHOI engineer David Fisichella shows a handheld magnetometer to students from the Perkins School for the Blind during a visit to WHOI earlier this month. Research divers use the instrument to detect metallic objects buried under sand and sediments on the bottom of the ocean. The magnetometer weighs about 35 pounds on land, but in the water it is neutrally buoyant, so that divers can easily hold it out in front of them as they survey the seafloor. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)