Image

Which Way to the Beach?

August 1, 2012

A 1950s-era amphibious vehicle helped make a challenging day at the beach easier for WHOI scientists Steve Elgar (in yellow) and Britt Raubenheimer (on shore with her guide dog Whit). The goal of team members was to fasten sensors on a sandy seafloor while battling breaking waves and currents as fast as 3 knots. Their work this spring was funded by the Office of Naval Research and is part of a 5-year effort that began in 2009 to better understand and predict waves, currents, and the movement of sediments at the mouths of tidal inlets, like the New River in North Carolina.(Photo by David Clark, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)