Holding It Together

WHOI engineering assistant Chris Basque splices wires from an electromechanical (EM) chain—the large black rubber tube—to a black-and-blue coiled “pigtail” cable. This EM chain is part of a surface mooring in the Global Southern Ocean Array that will be deployed off the coast of Chile as part of the Ocean Observatories Initiative. The EM chain hangs below a surface buoy, connecting it to a metal frame containing scientific instruments that measure a variety of ocean properties such as dissolved oxygen and downwelling solar radiation. The EM chain includes an actual chain for strength, along with coiled cables that provide power and transmit data back up to the surface. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)