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Pots of gold

The gold waiting at the end of this North Atlantic rainbow is a rack full of floats on the deck of the R/V Oceanus. The yellow plastic “hard hats” filled with glass spheres are attached to a mooring line to help keep it upright in the water and off the sea bottom.  They also help the wire and instruments float to the ocean surface after technicians fire acoustic bottom releases to set the mooring loose and recover it. These spheres were eventually used for several moorings and instruments deployed in November 2005 during the first leg of the CLIvar MOde Water Dynamic Experiment (CLIMODE), which is continuing this week. (Photo by Sean Whelan, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)