Interactive exhibit opening May 16 at Mariners’ Museum: EXTREME DEEP
The Mariners’ Museum will allow visitors to dive into the ocean depths with the deep-sea exploration exhibition EXTREME DEEP: Mission to the Abyss, opening at the Museum on May 16 and running through September 7, 2015.
EXTREME DEEP: Mission to the Abyss offers opportunities for hands-on exploration of life at the bottom of the sea. Newly-discovered life forms, thermal vents, close-up views of deep-sea research submersibles as well as shipwrecks including Titanic, are among the attractions in this deep-sea adventure. Museum visitors will observe firsthand the technology that only recently has allowed men and women to travel to the ocean floor.
Interactive elements allow guests to become a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) pilot and investigate a model of the Titanic’s deck; step inside a full scale mock-up of the interior of Alvin and use a joystick to explore a worm colony; operate Alvin’s robotic arm to pick up lava rocks and clams from the seafloor; examine other-worldly creatures; and so much more.
LED lighting and wall projections create an immersive environment that set the mood to travel down deep where there is no sunlight. As visitors move through the gallery, lighting and audio effects will make it seem as if they are traveling deeper and deeper underwater. Deep-sea discoveries will be projected onto the walls to further create the feeling of traveling to the deep.
EXTREME DEEP brings the mysteries of the oceans’ greatest depths to the surface. This exhibition teaches guests about biology, chemistry, geology, history, exploration and the critical role that technology plays in understanding our world and its future. EXTREME DEEP is a traveling exhibition presented by Evergreen Exhibitions in collaboration with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
In conjunction with this new exhibition, the Museum is featuring James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge 3D movie in the Explorers Theater from May 16 through October 30, 2015. This film chronicles Cameron’s solo dive to the depths of the Mariana Trench—nearly seven miles beneath the ocean’s surface—piloting a submersible he designed himself.
EXTREME DEEP: Mission to the Abyss is open from May 16 through September 7, 2015.
The Mariners’ Museum, an educational, non-profit institution accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is home to the USS Monitor Center, and is surrounded by the 550-acre Mariners’ Museum Park, the largest privately maintained park open to the public in North America. The Mariners’ Museum Library, housed at Christopher Newport University, is the largest maritime library in the Western Hemisphere. For more information, visit www.MarinersMuseum.org.
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