Beneath the Arctic sun – far beneath

WHOI engineer John Kemp sends the sampling camera instrument Camper off on a solitary mission to the deep Arctic Ocean floor, from the Swedish icebreaker Oden. During the 2007 expedition to the remote, unexplored Gakkel Ridge, scientists sought evidence of hydrothermal vents  and employed new robotic vehicles. Camper brought back images of fields of yellowy-orange material on the seafloor that scientists believe is produced by microbes consuming chemicals seeping up through the ocean floor. (Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)