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Underwater at the Top of the World

April 26, 2017

WHOI geochemist Chris German (left) and Louis Whitcomb, chair of mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, along with Antje Boetius, director of the Alfred Wegner Institute, display Explorer’s Club Flag #80 next to the German ice breaker Polarstern. The U.S. team, led by German, was funded by NASA to explore relatively shallow (600 meter) seamount ecosystems in the high Arctic using the new hybrid remotely operated vehicle Nereid Under Ice. The science team led by Boetius also conducted research to locate and study previously unexplored deep seafloor ecosystems beneath ice-covered oceans. (Photo courtesy of Chris German, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)