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Jason Away

July 18, 2014

The remotely operated vehicle Jason is launched from R/V Atlantis into the waters of the East Pacific Rise in January 2014. During the cruise, WHOI microbiologist Stefan Sievert led an international team of scientists studying the microbes that form the base of the food chain at hydrothermal vents. Because vent ecosystems exist far from sunlight, they rely on chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis as their source of energy, often via symbiosis between chemosynthetic bacteria and animals such as tubeworms and clams.(Photo by David Levin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)