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A MODE of Studying the Ocean

A string of mooring floats goes over the fantail of the WHOI research vessel Chain in 1973 during the Mid-Ocean Dynamics Experiment (MODE). Conceived a decade earlier, this study of deep-water dynamics had to wait for advances in instruments and mooring technology. MODE eventually involved 15 institutions and five research vessels, and was one of the early big-science projects included under the International Decade of Oceanography. Later in the decade, the follow-on POLYMODE program extended MODE’s geographical reach and expanded to include investigators from the Soviet Union.(Photo courtesy of George Tupper, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)