NEPTUNE AND VENUS: LINKED REGIONAL AND COASTAL CABLED OBSERVATORIES ON THE NORTHEAST PACIFIC MARGIN

NEPTUNE is a proposed innovative network of over 30 sub-sea observatories linked by over 3300 km of powered, fiber-optic cables covering the Juan de Fuca Plate (200,000 sq km), Northeast Pacific. Each observatory will host and power many scientific instruments on the surrounding seafloor, in boreholes in the seafloor, and buoyed up into the water column. Remotely operated and autonomous vehicles will reside at depth, recharge at observatories, and respond to distant labs. Continuous near-real-time multidisciplinary measurement series will extend over 30 years. Shore stations will be located in Victoria BC and Nedonna Beach OR. Major research themes include: structure and seismic behavior of the ocean crust; dynamics of hot and cold fluids and gas hydrates in the upper ocean crust and overlying sediments; ocean climate change and effects on the ocean biota at all depths; and the barely known ecosystem dynamics and biodiversity of the deep-sea. All involve interacting processes, long term changes, and non-linear, chaotic, episodic events that are hard to study with traditional means. NEPTUNE is an US/Canada (70/30) partnership with the total facility cost of about US$250M. Over US$40M has been funded on NEPTUNE design and development and for VENUS and MARS. Funding for NEPTUNE Canada’s installation contribution (US$48M) is imminent. VENUS, MARS and NEPTUNE will use many of the same cable and engineering systems with the former two acting as test-beds for the latter.

VENUS is a shallow-water, coastal observatory in southern BC whose installation has been funded for 2002-05 (US$7M). Over 60km of cable will be divided into three lines: Saanich Inlet (anoxic fiord), across the Strait of Georgia (from Fraser River delta), and across the Strait of Juan de Fuca (active circulation with Pacific Ocean; linking with the Victoria NEPTUNE cable landing). These three different coastal settings will provide data to interpret coastal circulation processes, delta front dynamics, salmon and whale migrations, and biotic processes in variably oxic to anoxic environments.

NEPTUNE and VENUS will be among the first of many such cabled ocean observatories. New scientific understanding and technology developments will help with urgent problems ranging from seismic hazard assessment, pollution, to fish stock management in a changing climate.