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Scanning the Deep Earth

WHOI scientist Veronique LeRoux places a sample of porous lava into a Skyscan 1272 CT, an imaging system that creates three-dimensional views of physical samples that it scanns. LeRoux is a geologist whose work focuses on Earth’s mantle, and she is using three-dimensional scans to better understand how melt material and the fluids trapped inside affect the composition and structure of rocks formed from solidified mantle. These samples also give an insight into how seawater and volatiles such as carbon dioxide are recycled in the crust and mantle through plate tectonics.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)