A deep-water ocean observatory began operations off the west coast of North America earlier this month, making it the second to go live in the area this year.
On 10 November, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California began receiving data from its US$13.5-million Monterey Accelerated Research System (part of it is pictured being lowered into the sea) — a platform the size of two small cars to which researchers can link their recording instruments to monitor earthquakes, sea acidification and animal life at a depth of 900 metres.
Meanwhile, Neptune Canada, which aims to be the world's largest cabled seafloor observatory, saw data from its first instrument node on 29 September. By the end of 2009 it should boast five nodes along an 800-kilometre cable loop, reaching depths of 2.7 kilometres to measure, for example, current speeds, water pressure and sonar signals.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Deep-ocean observatories take the plunge. Nature 456, 435 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/456435f
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/456435f
