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Underwater Maintenance

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution operates the U.S. Navy-owned Deep Submergence Vehicle Alvin for the national oceanographic community. Alvin, built in 1964 as the world’s first deep-ocean submersible, has made more than 4,200 dives. It can reach nearly 63 percent of the global ocean floor. Each dive requires members of the Alvin team to enter the water to check various components and make sure it comes back to the ship safely. The sub’s most famous exploits include locating a lost hydrogen bomb in the Mediterranean Sea in 1966, exploring the first known hydrothermal vent sites in the 1970s, and surveying the wreck of RMS Titanic in 1986.
(Photo by Rod Catanach, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)