Current Affairs

The Galápagos Islands are home to species found nowhere else on Earth, such as this land iguana. This unique ecosystem depends on nutrients brought to the islands by the Equatorial Undercurrent, a vigorous deep-sea current that flows from west to east across the entire Pacific Ocean. A team of scientists, including MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Julie Jakoboski, used autonomous underwater vehicles known as Spray gliders to reveal details about this important hidden current. (Photo by Julie Jakoboski, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)