Experience an ocean you never imagined in the American Museum of Natural History‘s new exhibit, Unseen Oceans. The new installation explores the wonders within our oceans, and goes deep into the water like never before. With the use immersive exhibits, technology, and glowing biofluorescence; Unseen Oceans opens up a deep underwater world for curious land lovers to discover. Perfect for budding scientists – the exhibit showcases the front-lines of ocean exploration; with focus on the work of marine scientists, the technology behind the discoveries, and how they are mapping the deep water beneath our world in extraordinary detail.
Below we dive into some of our favorites from the exhibit!
Unseen Oceans Grand Entrance. Second and Fourth photo below, courtesy of AMNH.
Dive In: Unseen Oceans
Mysterious Drifters exhibit at Unseen Oceans
Mysterious Drifters
If you have a SpongeBob SquarePants fan in the house, it is no doubt that they will love the Mysterious Drifters exhibit – which focuses on some of the most important organisms on the planet – Plankton! In this beautiful room that dances in dots of blue – visitors can meet the famous (and vital!) organism and learn about their importance to marine life. The exhibit also showcases ctenophores and has an exhibit where visitors can watch their waving, shimmering movements in a tank.
Unseen Oceans: Secret Lives Exhibit. Photo Courtesy of AMNH.
Secret Lives
Some marine organisms have biofluorescence— molecules in their bodies absorb light, then re-emit it. The Secret Lives exhibit examines these glowing creatures, and how scientists study them in dark waters. The gorgeous centerpiece of this room is a neon biofluorescent display that will take your breath away. Behind the installation – live pipe-fish, eels, and seahorses take home in tanks, where visitors can learn about how biofluorescence keeps them camouflaged and recognize potential mates.
Unseen Oceans: Encountering Giants exhibit.
Encountering Giants
See life-size deep sea creatures in 3D in the Encountering Giants exhibit that puts you up close and personal with some of the ocean’s largest fish friends. The video is projected on a 180-degree, high resolution screen, and showcases what it is like to sit within blue whales, giant squid, and great white sharks underwater habitat. We LOVED this room, and even stayed to watch the movie presentation repeat a few times. Seeing these giants in real-scale animations is an incredible experience you MUST witness.
Sand box fun in the Unseen Oceans: Going Deep Exhibit.
Going Deep
Dive in to discover dramatic undersea landscapes and the extraordinary organisms that inhabit them in the Going Deep exhibit. Here visitors learn about undersea topography and ocean currents, and how these factors affect marine ecosystems. The ocean floor contains dramatic landforms, such as mountains and canyons. The exhibit allows visitors to sculpt their own structures with kinetic sand to visualize how islands are actually mountaintops that have peeked above the ocean surface.
Driving a submersible in the Journey to the Deep Exhibit.
Taking a Dive: Journey into the Deep
Journey deep into the ocean with this incredible Journey into the Deep section of the exhibit. Journey into the Deep includes an immersive seven minute theater presentation that takes viewers on a journey through marine environments at different depths of the ocean. Focusing on the challenges of deep-sea exploration, this section highlights the technology that makes it possible, and some of what scientists are discovering about the creatures that live at different depths. The exhibit also allows visitors to step inside a scale model of a Triton Submersible, for a fun underwater photo op!
Dive In: Unseen Oceans
There’s so much to discover, we have only scratched the surface of what lies beneath this incredible underwater exhibit. Unseen Oceans – now through January 6th 2019.
American Museum of Natural History. Central Park West at 79th Street. New York, NY
Unseen Oceans will be open to the public from Monday, March 12, 2018.
Tickets and more information HERE.
