This photograph looks like the cover of a science fiction novel, but is a real photo of the deep seafloor taken by one of MBARI’s remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). An MBARI research team led by Peter Brewer used an ROV to study hydrothermal vents along the Gorda Ridge, off Southern Oregon, where superheated water (up to 300 degrees Celsius) flows up from cracks in the seafloor. On the right side of the image, you can see the ROV’s manipulator arm reaching down toward the seafloor, holding an instrument called the laser Raman spectrometer. By bouncing a specially tuned laser beam off of almost any object or substance—solid, liquid, or gas—a laser Raman spectrometer can provide information about that object’s chemical composition and molecular structure. 

This photograph looks like the cover of a science fiction novel, but is a real photo of the deep seafloor taken by one of MBARI’s remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). An MBARI research team led by Peter Brewer used an ROV to study hydrothermal vents along the Gorda Ridge, off Southern Oregon, where superheated water (up to 300 degrees Celsius) flows up from cracks in the seafloor. On the right side of the image, you can see the ROV’s manipulator arm reaching down toward the seafloor, holding an instrument called the laser Raman spectrometer. By bouncing a specially tuned laser beam off of almost any object or substance—solid, liquid, or gas—a laser Raman spectrometer can provide information about that object’s chemical composition and molecular structure. 

Tags: marine science technology engineering ocean oceanography deep sea