Deep beneath Arctic ice and miles of sunless water lie what are may be the remotest places on earth: ranges of unexplored volcanic mountains more foreign than the surface of Mars. But recently, an international team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) set out to uncover the secrets of this Arctic sea floor. Using robotic divers, the expedition set out for the Gakkel Ridge, parts of which seethe with geysers escaping from beneath the ocean bottom.

Exploring the Arctic Sea Floor, an exhibit created by Chris Linder of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), opened at the Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois, on February 22, 2008. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Visitors can journey on an icebreaking ship through the frozen Arctic world for a first-ever look at mysterious undersea mountains near the North Pole. Thirty color photographs, a sample of rock from the ocean floor, a computer kiosk, and a 3-D model of underwater mountains portray this expedition’s quest, its exploratory equipment, and the work of the scientists aboard the ship.

This exhibit will close on July 6, 2008, and then travel to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in late July. Other venues currently are being scheduled at natural history museums and science centers over the next three years. If your institution is interested in hosting the exhibit, please send an email to Chris Linder at clinder@whoi.edu.

Image Credit: Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Permission for image use is for this project only - any future uses or third party requests please refer to WHOI for new permissions.