Strong Enough to Bend

An 80-foot long ‘jumbo’ piston core is launched from the deck of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy during ice trials off Baffin Bay in July 2000. Flexing during deployment, the core pipe straightens (due to weight/gravity and the pressure of water) when vertical. Triggered to free-fall near the seafloor, the corer penetrates and captures a stratified sample of the sediment, giving scientists a window on Earth’s history. (Photo by James Broda, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)