Seafloor & Below
Fresh Water Below the Seafloor?
Using a new method to distinguish fresh water from oil or salt water, scientists are exploring beneath the continental shelf off New England to look for large pockets of trapped fresh water. This water may be continually filling from groundwater flowing from land or, alternatively, may have been left behind by ice ages glaciers.
Attracted to Magnetics
Maurice Tivey has probably endured more than a few bad puns, like the one in…
The Quest for the Moho
For more than a century, scientists have made several attempts to drill a hole through…
Beneath the Sea, the Galápagos Reveal More Marvels
The Galápagos Islands have offered biologists a natural laboratory ever since Charles Darwin’s day, but…
The Bottom of the Ocean On Top of Your Coffee Table
Here’s a way to journey to the seafloor without leaving your living room or classroom.…
Bringing a Lab to the Seafloor
Scientists can't really know if new oceanographic instruments will really work until they try them…
Big Questions About Tiny Bacteria
It’s 3 a.m., and Jesse McNichol is struggling to stay awake. Since midafternoon, he’s been…
Deep-sea Detectives
Links to related materials Mid-Ocean Ridges—Articles, illustrations, and video showing how new seafloor crust forms…
Deep-sea Vents Yield New Species
Call it “midnight at the OASES.” Neither permanent darkness nor extreme pressure and heat cause…
A Serendipitous Seafloor Sample
This research was funded by the National Science Foundation. The pillow lava display and coffee…
In Search of the Pink and White Terraces
The dazzling Pink and White Terraces on the shores of Lake Rotomahana at one time…
Powerful Currents in Deep-Sea Gorges
On my first major research cruise, the ship was hit by a hurricane. On the…
Searching for Life on the Seafloor
Smaller than a fingernail, like bits of downy red feathers, baby tubeworms cling to a…
Once More Unto the Rift
In the beginning, there was the Garden of Eden. It was a lush primordial oasis…
Engineer Par Excellence: Donald Koelsch
Dave Ross should have been sleeping. He was on a research ship in 1975, at…
A Hunt for Unusual Seafloor Animals and Vents
The first expedition to search for deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the Mid-Cayman Rise deep in…
The Call of the Sea
Marshall Swartz’s lab is a Santa’s workshop of engineering gadgetry. Computer keyboards and circuit boards…
Undersea Asphalt Volcanoes Discovered
The dome-like mounds poking up in sonar maps of the seafloor caught scientists’ eyes. They…
The Mysterious Movements of Deep-Sea Larvae
The marvelous migrations of fish and whales through the deep sea have been hard enough…
The Promise and Perils of Seafloor Mining
A year ago, the Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals was poised to launch a new…
Garrett Mitchell
For Garrett Mitchell, an interest in oceanography arose not in a university classroom but on…
Gar Secrist
Gar Secrist says that he spent his summer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) working…
Nereus Soars to the Ocean’s Deepest Trench
It took a village of engineers to build a completely new type of unmanned deep-sea…