What the Seafloor Keeps

Board a submersible and descend into the Gulf of Aqaba, a deep basin within the Red Sea. As the light fades, the seafloor comes into view.

What the Seafloor Keeps is an immersive augmented reality research journey built for Snap Spectacles. Scan the terrain and choose where to sample. Drive a push core into the sediment, then bring a narrow column of the seabed back into view, its layers formed over time.

Examine the sample closely. Microfossils and minerals preserved within the sediment can offer evidence of earlier ocean conditions. Layer by layer, the core reveals a history held beneath the water.

Inspired by OceanX’s 2022 Red Sea Expedition, the experience places the methods of deep-sea research in your hands and shows how the seafloor can preserve evidence of the past.

Your core represents one sample from a single site. Across the planet, vast areas of the seafloor remain unsampled, with more histories waiting below.

Created by Leila Okahata, Emily Do and Marcus Chaknova, drawing on work developed during the OceanX x Snap Spectacles AR Hackathon in May 2026.