NEPTUNE Canada Regional Cabled Observatory: Science Plan

Starting in 2007, NEPTUNE Canada will install an 800 km long regional cabled ocean observatory across the northern Juan de Fuca Plate. Across the network, high resolution seismic information will elucidate tectonic processes such as earthquakes and strain, and a tsunami system will allow determination of open ocean tsunami amplitude, propagation direction, and speed. At Endeavour Ridge, complex interactions among volcanic, tectonic, hydrothermal and biological processes will be quantified where new volcanic seafloor is created. On the abyssal plain, ODP borehole monitoring systems will track realtime changes in crustal temperature and pressure, particularly as they relate to events such as earthquakes, hydrothermal convection or regional plate strain at this mid- plate site. Experiments around Barkley Canyon will allow quantification of changes in biological and chemical activity associated with nutrient and sediment transport around the shelf/slope break and through the canyon to the deep sea. There and north along the mid- continental slope, shallowly buried gas hydrates allow monitoring of changes in their distribution, depth, structure, properties and venting, particularly related to earthquakes, slope failures and regional plate motions. At inshore Folger Passage, Barkley Sound, understanding controls on biological productivity will help evaluate the effects that marine processes have on fish and marine mammals. NEPTUNE Canada will transform our understanding of biological, chemical, physical, and geological processes across an entire tectonic plate, from the shelf to the deep sea. Real-time continuous monitoring and archiving allows scientists to capture the temporal nature and characteristics of these natural processes in a way never before possible.