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Angry Irminger

The research vessel Knorr, carrying WHOI scientists and international researchers, was several days into a month-long voyage to study the Irminger Sea when it smacked into an intense Atlantic storm. Writer Dallas Murphy, chronicling the expedition with daily journals from Knorr, described the storm as vicious. “It’s been blowing steadily 50 knots for most of the day, and guys told me they saw gusts to 73 knots this morning. That’s hurricane velocity. The seas are astounding, frightening and beautiful in their violence. Waves are averaging easily 30 feet, many far larger, but raw numbers don’t do them justice…. The entire ship shudders when she buries her bow in the face of the waves.” Chief scientist Robert Pickart, who conducts research in WHOI’s physical oceanography department, is coordinating the expedition. It ends October 30.
(Photo by Daniel Torres, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)