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Revisiting History

In 2002 WHOI scientists re-visited the seafloor near the Galápagos Islands, where in 1977 hydrothermal vents were found to support thriving communities of diverse organisms that survive on a foundation of chemosynthesis. Diving more than a mile down in the submersible Alvin, biologists Tim Shank and Rhian Waller found an expanse of giant clams and other life shown here. They named the site “Calyfield” after Calyptogenia magnifica, the nearly foot-long white clams nourished by chemicals in warm fluids seeping up through the rocks. Scientists returned again in 2011, continuing WHOI’s long-running exploration of undersea hydrothermal environments. (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)