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With a Few Grains of Salt

September 17, 2017

Geophysicist, Maurice Ewing, stands on the deck of WHOI’s first research vessel, Atlantis, holding a mechanism to time the release of seismic equipment from the seafloor so that it could be retrieved at the surface. The key is a block of salt that slowly dissolves in seawater, eventually breaking the connection between equipment and anchor. Earth science pioneers such as Ewing often took advantage of Atlantis, which was then the nation’s first and only open-ocean research vessel, to test and deploy devices they invented. Ewing made many influential discoveries with the help of Atlantis and other ships, including the SOFAR channel. (Photo by Allyn Vine, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)