2022 SOST Opportunities and Actions Roundtable
Summary: For over three decades, there have been world-wide calls for the development of a global network of seismic stations on the seafloor that can transmit data remotely within minutes for global earthquake, submarine landslide and volcanic eruption, and tsunami monitoring systems. More recently, there are complementary calls to monitor the effects of ocean anthropogenic soundscape pollution and temperature fluctuations related to climate change in the oceans. All these challenges can be met with a new research and engineering initiative that integrates seafloor sensor operations with wave-gliders, autonomous vehicles, seafloor cables, smart algorithms to flag events of interest, and low-power consumption. Recording and distributing data from stations in the deep, open oceans would advance the accuracy of publicly disseminated, globally-occurring earthquake parameters such as location and magnitude. Agencies which monitor evolving tsunamis in warning systems use these data to determine the likelihood and size of a tsunami being generated. Communities monitoring the oceanic soundscape can use listening capabilities provided by acoustic sensors connected with the seismic stations. Marine mammal counts are more efficiently conducted acoustically, and shipping traffic noise levels can be monitored to the point where it is possible to attribute noise levels to specific ships. Seismic seafloor stations also introduce the possibility of measuring the daily variation of temperature in the water column through observations of acoustic waves in the ocean. Partnerships between the U.S. Navy, and academic geophysicists and oceanographers form natural pairings given the shared interest in the data end-products and sea-going technology. Such partnerships would provide a platform from which to launch an increasingly diverse and inclusive blue workforce, taking advantage of academic and naval presence on multiple coasts. A five-station pilot array could be developed and deployed in five years, setting the stage for the full global ocean deployment over the following two decades.
Sector: Academia, Industry, Government, NGO
Organization: 1) California Institute of Technology; 2) Scripps Institution of Oceanography; 3) Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
POC: Monica Kohler, kohler@caltech.edu
Other Contacts: Gabi Laske, glaske@ucsd.edu; John Orcutt, jorcutt@ucsd.edu; John Collins, jcollins@whoi.edu