Turbulent Times

Brian Hogue and Sophia Merrifield assist WHOI Senior Scientist Louis St. Laurent in deploying a Vertical Microstructure Profiler (VMP) from the deck of the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer during the Dynamics on Mid-Ocean Ridge flank Experiment (DoMORE) expedition off the coast of Chile in the fall of 2015. The VMP measured turbulence on millimeter scales during its free-fall dives into deep canyons of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. St. Laurent and his collaborator Andreas Thurner of Columbia University are investigating how cold currents of the ocean conveyor loop interact with the flanks of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge mountains, potentially mixing deep waters to shallower depths. (Photo by Sean P. Whelan, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)