Norwegian participation in a European network of cable-based ocean observatories will have substantial significance for research within several scientific areas, e.g. climate research, oceanography, marine geology, marine biology, geobiology, geomicrobiology, marine instrumentation, subsea communication, infrastructure and future recruitment. The discovery and research potential are vast as the deep sea areas are less known than e.g. the surface of the moon.

The main geographical target areas are:

  • Mid-oceanic ridges
  • Continental margins

What are the scientific topics?

  • Understand the processes of ocean permafrost melting and greenhouse gas release, ice-free Arctic Ocean and water-mass cascading and ocean climate change, environment and food chains.
  • Polar Ocean climate processes of global importance
  • Explore the genetic resources e.g. caused by extreme environmental conditions such as high pressure and temperature.
  • Measure seismic activity in the deep sea to understand earthquake. In combination with pressure sensors this will also enable detection and warning of tsunamis.
  • Distributed and continuous observations of climate and biological resources in the water column to improve the monitoring of climate and marine resources.
  • Enable experiments at the seabed to understand the biological response to environmental disturbance including acidification due to increased levels of CO2.

Access to large quantities of real-time observation from the deep sea, including high definition video, can be used to provide the public and future recruits to science a fascinating insight into an almost unexplored part of the earth. 

WebSys AS