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Up From the Depths

November 5, 2014

WHOI-MIT graduate student Santiago Herrera examines a group of amphipods recovered from the Kermadec Trench in the spring of this year. Herrera and a team led by WHOI biologist Tim Shank are conducting a multi-year study of life in the ocean’s hadal zone—regions more than 6,000 meters (3.5 miles) in depth. Amphipods are of particular interest to those who study life’s adaptations to increasing depth, as they are the only group of organisms known to exist from the shoreline to the deepest parts of the ocean. In November 2014, Shank will be part of a group to explore the Mariana Trench—the ocean’s deepest trench. (Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)