North Pacific at night

This is the view around midnight on the R/V Marcus G. Langseth, looking sternward from the starboard side of the bridge deck. Data collection at sea is a 24/7 operation, so the crew on the night shift work in this highly localized, artificial daylight. The illuminated ship is a tiny bright point in the dark of the open ocean. This photo was taken during a seismic experiment in the central Aleutian islands focused on understanding the construction of arc crust.