Dynamite Recovery

Jeff Pietro, Scott Worrilow, Chief Scientist Ruth Curry, and an R/V Atlantic Explorer crew member (left to right) recover a mooring line to the fantail of the ship in June. The cruise and mooring were part of DynAMITE, a multi-year project to study the processes that convert cold, dense water flowing south along the floor of the North Atlantic into warm, less-dense water. The circulation that this conversion creates is part of the Meriodonal Overturning Circulation, or Great Ocean Conveyor, and the heat, momentum, and chemical tracers that it transports are a critical part of Earth’s climate system. (Photo by Carolina Nobre, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)