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Sitting Pretty

November 19, 2013

During dock trials in San Diego Harbor recently, the rebuilt and upgraded submersible Alvin underwent an incline test while attached to the stern of its support ship, R/V Atlantis. The test was designed to measure the sub’s stability in the water and to calculate its righting moment—the force that tends to restore a leaning, or heeling, ship to upright. From the test, the sub was found to be even more stable than the previous design.(Photo by Lisa Smith, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)