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OBS Recovery

Crew aboard the R/V Atlantis recover an ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) during a January 2009 expedition. The sensitive instruments are deployed on the seafloor to record ground movements from undersea earthquakes or the echoes of sound from ship-towed sound sources reflecting off layers of rock and sediment deep beneath the ocean floor. This OBS was one of 41 deployed at depths of 2500-4200 meters along the Quebrada, Discovery, and Gofar transform faults at the East Pacific Rise—a fast-spreading center along the mid-ocean ridge.(Photo by Jeff McGuire, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)