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The Seafloor

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BLOG POST What We DON'T Know About the Deep Sea Imagine: You’re in a small submersible, and you gently settle on the soft muddy bottom at a depth of 12,000 feet. It’s absolutely dark. What will you see when the exterior lights are turned...MORE STORIES


	ARTICLE MORE STORIES Seamounts: Underwater Oases Thousands of seamounts—most of them undersea volcanoes—tower above the muddy sea...
	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS Diverse Deep-Sea Coral Community A diversity of deep-sea corals—including primnoid coral (Narella sp.), black cor...
	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS Exploring Chile's Marine Fossil Record in the Atacama Desert Smithsonian curator of fossil marine mammals Nick Pyenson and a team of collabor...

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					Star Sand Grains Collected from Southern Japan May 24, 2012 - 10:54AMThese star-shaped grains of sand, collected from southern Japan, look like miniature works of art -- but they were not sculpted by an artist. They are the shells of microscopic organisms called foraminifera, which build intricate...

Ocean “Pingos”

Jan 26, 2012 - 11:45AM

Geologist Charles Paull (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)...

Exploring Chile's Marine Fossil Record in the Atacama Desert

Sep 30, 2011 - 6:38AM

Smithsonian curator of fossil marine mammals Nick Pyenson and a team of...

SPOTLIGHT


Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Scientists from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) collect sediments drilled from Earth’s crust. This marine...

Map of the Magnitude 5.8 Virginia Earthquake of 2011 Aug 26 2011 - 11:00am On August 23, 2011 a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck the East Coast of the United States. The earthquake map shown here, generated by the U.S. Geological Survey and regional seismic network operators, shows the ground motion intensity that followed the earthquake. These maps are used for...	Foraminifera Mar 25 2010 - 4:23pm Microscopic, single-celled organisms called foraminifera have a fossil record that extends from today to more than 500 million years ago. Although each foram is just a single cell, they build complex shells around themselves from minerals in the seawater. These shells have accumulated in layers of...
Exploring Chile's Marine Fossil Record in the Atacama Desert Sep 30 2011 - 6:38am Smithsonian curator of fossil marine mammals Nick Pyenson and a team of collaborators are heading into Chile's Atacama Desert, shown here. They'll study a rich bonebed of fossil marine vertebrates that lived off the Chilean coast around 8 million years ago.	Seamounts, A Deep-Sea Habitat Dec 4 2009 - 3:41pm Thousands of seamounts—most of them undersea volcanoes—tower above the muddy seafloor. They provide something hard to come by in the deep ocean: a solid surface to cling to. This photo gallery shows some of the organisms that have found a suitable home on seamounts.
Tour the Chikyu Dec 8 2009 - 11:00pm Climb aboard the scientific ocean drilling vessel Chikyu for a tour of this state-of-the-art research ship.	Map of New England Seamount Chain Dec 4 2009 - 3:39pm The New England Seamount Chain is the longest in the North Atlantic Ocean. It includes more than 30 major volcanic peaks. Seamounts provide a solid surface for corals and other marine animals to cling to.
Deep Sea Drilling Vessel Chikyu Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am This Japanese research ship Chikyu drills into the ocean floor to learn about Earth’s history and structure, and the mechanism of earthquakes in particular. Completed in 2005, it is the first scientific research ship that can drill up to 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) below the ocean floor to obtain...	Understanding the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Mar 14 2011 - 5:08pm Using maps and graphics, Smithsonian geologist Dr. Liz Cottrell provides an overview of the major earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011—one of the largest ever recorded globally. She explains the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the movement of tectonic plates and subduction, the...
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Dec 8 2009 - 10:49pm Scientists from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) collect sediments drilled from Earth’s crust. This marine research program supported by 24 countries is increasing our understanding of Earth’s history, structure, and changing environment. Learn more about deep sea drilling from the...	The Ocean Drilling Vessel Chikyu Dec 8 2009 - 10:57pm The Chikyu allows scientists to gather and study data about seafloor sediments as soon as they are collected. After a powerful 9.0 earthquake triggered a devestating tsunami in Japan in March 2011, Japanese officials decided to use the Chikyu to explore the underwater fault zone.
Balanus Seamount Dec 4 2009 - 3:35pm A large white coral (Corallium sp.) grows on the Balanus Seamount, part of the New England Seamount chain. Hanging on to the coral are stalkless crinoids and orange brittlestars (Opiacantha sp.) To the left are two vase sponges. This photo was taken on May 22, 2004, at a depth of 1,745 meters (5,...	High Coast / Kvarken Archipelago, Sweden & Finland Nov 4 2010 - 1:47pm The High Coast in Sweden and the Kvarken Archipelago in Finland were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2000. The High Coast and the 5,600 islands of the archipelago have been shaped by the combined processes of glaciation, glacial retreat, and the emergence of new land from the sea, as the...
Star Sand Grains Collected from Southern Japan May 24 2012 - 10:54am These star-shaped grains of sand, collected from southern Japan, look like miniature works of art -- but they were not sculpted by an artist. They are the shells of microscopic organisms called foraminifera, which build intricate shells from the calcium carbonate they collect while drifting through...	Corals in the Juan de Fuca Canyon and the Davidson Seamount Jul 22 2011 - 11:13am Discover some amazing corals in this footage that shows and identifies a range of deep-sea coral species from the Juan de Fuca Canyon off the Olympic coast and the Davidson Seamount, an underwater volcano outside the boundary of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean....
Ocean “Pingos” Jan 26 2012 - 11:45am Geologist Charles Paull (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute) investigates geologic features similar to pingos (Earth covered ice mounds found in the Arctic) on the Arctic Ocean floor where methane—a powerful greenhouse gas—bubbles through sediments and forms hundreds of low hills. Read an...	Bringing sediment core on ship Mar 23 2010 - 12:02pm Researchers bring a sediment core dug from the seafloor off the coast of Panama onto the deck of a ship. Cores like these are shedding light on what Earth’s climate was like in the past. More about climate change can be found in our climate change featured story.