HENRY COUNTY, Va. – A unique exhibit is on display at Patrick Henry Community College's MET Complex.
It features interactive displays and a 45-foot inflatable replica of the JOIDES ocean research ship.
The exhibit is designed to teach people what the ship does and why the research is important.
The ship makes several trips around the world each year, taking samples of the earth’s crust and studying them.
This is the exhibit’s first stop on it’s first-ever national tour.
“The scientists that go aboard this ship want to explore different aspects of natural history based on the drilling cores that they pull up from the ship,” exhibit curator Denny Casey said.
"We can take it to different locations and we can set it up easily and tell the story about the drilling, the science that goes on aboard the ship, how that works and this whole idea of (the samples) being extracts of time pulled out from the ocean floor, and what that tells scientists about earth's history."
The exhibit will be open to the public through Friday.