Fig. 3: Three-dimensional view of seismic images from the expedition EW9501.

a Short seismic images illustrate coherent thermohaline staircases. Images have a vertical exaggeration of 25. b Long seismic images reveal the distribution of eddies and their disruption on thermohaline staircases. Images have a vertical exaggeration of 50. Seismic line numbers are labeled (blue numbers indicate the starting position of seismic lines). Arrows point to the positions of the main staircases. E1–6 denotes the core locations of six mesoscale eddies. The depth range for all images spans from 0 to 1500 m. c Location map of seismic lines in a (red lines) and b (yellow lines).