Moonwalking

Like a walk on the moon, geologist Robert Miller of San Jose State University descended into a barren, rocky wadi (valley) in Oman, at the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. But rocks were what brought him, and MIT/WHOI Joint Program student Evelyn Mervine, there. Mervine studies ophiolites—fragments of ocean crust that have been uplifted and exposed on land. In this place, Oman’s Samail Ophiolite, the rocks are accessible underfoot—no plants in the way. (Photo by Evelyn Mervine, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)