Out of the classroom, into the pond

WHOI Senior Scientist Larry Pratt of the Physical Oceanography Department and MIT-WHOI Joint Program students Wilken-Jon von Appen and Ping Zhai test a volume flow rate formula developed in one of their classes during a field trip to Oyster Pond in West Falmouth. “One of the central topics in the class is the dense overflows found in numerous sites in the deep ocean. Large volumes of dense water spill down into the abyssal ocean at these sites, much like water flowing over a dam,” says Pratt. The tidal stream in West Falmouth provides a small-scale example of spilling flows.

(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)