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Alpine Field Trip

MIT-WHOI Joint Program students Min Xu (front) and Min Ding, trek in the Italian Alps on a study tour to examine a geologic formation called an ophiolite. This type of igneous rock forms where a portion of the seafloor has been uplifted on land to expose ancient rocks in seafloor crust and in Earth’s underlying mantle. The tour culminated the 2010 WHOI Geodynamics Program, an annual semester-long series of seminars on specific earth science topics. The 2010 program focused on the formation of Earth’s crust. The 2017 program will revisit the subject and include a trip to the Josephine Ophiolite in Oregon. (Photo by Katie Pesce, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)