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Stairway to the Deep

March 20, 2015

A special, thick-walled tank permits guest investigator Sheng-Qi Zhou from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology in Guangzhou, China, to observe mixing processes under the pressures experienced deep in the ocean. Zhou is working with WHOI Senior Scientist and physical oceanographer Ray Schmitt to study the characteristic “diffusive staircases” that form between water masses with density differences driven by variations in both temperature and salinity. Such double-diffuse convection occurs when cold, fresh water overlies warm, salty water in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)