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Ocean on a Table

WHOI physical oceanographer Claudia Cenedese (left) and Rachel Bueno de Mesquita, a visiting researcher from the University of Rome, developed this laboratory experiment to study fluid flow and eddies around seamounts. In the WHOI Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (GFD) Laboratory, Cenedese filled the plexiglass basin with waters of different densities and salinities, each of which was colored with a different food dye. The basin was then rotated on a spinning table that mimics Earth’s coriolis effect on the ocean. The researchers observed how the different water masses move and mix. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)