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Endless Summer

August 6, 2016

On an endless summer day in 2007, WHOI scientists gathered at the gateway to the Arctic Ocean in Longyearbyen (population 1,800), the largest settlement on the Norwegian island of Svalbard, a name that translates to “cold coast.” There they met the Swedish icebreaker Oden for an expedition that deployed autonomous underwater vehicles for the first time beneath the ice-covered ocean to discover volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, and deep-sea life on the Gakkel Ridge. The trip was chronicled on the Dive & Discover and Polar Discovery websites.(Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)