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FAMOUS Map on Navy gymnasium floor in Washington, D.C.

FAMOUS Map on Navy gymnasium floor in Washington, D.C.
FAMOUS Map on Navy gymnasium floor in Washington, D.C.
FAMOUS Map on Navy gymnasium floor in Washington, D.C.
FAMOUS Map on Navy gymnasium floor in Washington, D.C.
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FAMOUS Map on Navy gymnasium floor in Washington, D.C.
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12/26/2008
archives/GalapagosCDROMs/Famous map on floor c.tif
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory also sent out the U.S.N.S. Mizar with LIBEC (LIght BEhind Camera), a deep-sea photography system built after the submarine Threshers tragic sinking. LIBEC suspended high-intensity electronic flash lamps well above the ocean bottom, making it possible to shoot 120-foot-wide sections of the seafloor.
LIBEC collected 5,250 seafloor photos, which were fitted together and laid across the floor of a Navy gymnasium in Washington, D.C. Scientists wandered over the giant jigsaw puzzle of photos to get their first glimpse of conditions they would encounter on the seafloor.
Image Of the Day caption:
In 1974, Project FAMOUS (French-American Mid-Ocean Undersea Study) would take humans to explore the seafloor for the first time, using the human-occupied submersible Alvin. To reconnoiter the target area on a mid-ocean ridge, the U.S. Navy dispatched a top-secret deep-sea photography system called LIBEC (LIght BEhind Camera), which collected 5,250 images of the seafloor. In those pre-computer days, the images were fitted together and laid across the floor of a Navy gymnasium in Washington, D.C. Scientists wandered over the giant jigsaw puzzle of photos to get their first glimpse of conditions they would encounter on the seafloor. On the first day of Women's History Month, we note that Project FAMOUS was also an historic breakthrough for women scientiststhe first significant female participation at sea in a large oceanographic program.
Photo courtesy of WHOI Archives
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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