Sleeping Beauty

The Galápagos Islands are known for giant tortoises, Darwin’s finches, and marine iguanas—but land iguanas (pictured) are also among the numerous species endemic to these volcanic islands. This part of the world is as intriguing to physical oceanographers as it is to biologists. Beneath the ocean waves, a powerful current flows along the equator from west to east, traveling thousands of miles across the Pacific from Indonesia to the Galápagos, where it finally slows and diverges, carrying nutrients from the deeper ocean up with it. WHOI scientists have used ocean gliders to track the Equatorial Undercurrent and its nutrients, on which Galápagos ecosystems depend. (Photo by Julie Jakoboski, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)