Neptune Project

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Neptune Project
Luis Bayona

Clayton Pearson
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What is the Neptune Project?

• The first large scale, long term marine
  observatory
• Consists of 30 nodes (observation stations)
  placed strategically all around the Juan de Fuca
  plate
• Will provide real-time data to researchers,
  educators and students across the North American
  continent

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MARS
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How does it work?

• Fiber optic cabling will connect observatories
  and equipment forming a 200 000 sq km grid
  covering the Juan de Fuca plate
• Instruments will be deployed in boreholes and
  suspended in the water column as well as housed
  in the observatories, ready for remote deployment

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Location
of Project
and Nodes
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Four Main Elements

• Fiber optic cabling and fixed nodes comprising a
  network allowing for high speed communication
• Array deployed on the seafloor as well as in the
  water column
• Data management at the archive centre
• An on-shore operation centre to control all
  elements of the network

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Major Themes

• Dynamic processes of fluid fluxes and gas
  hydrates in the seabed (and sedimentation)
• Regional ocean/climate dynamics and effects on
  the marine biota
• Plate tectonic processes and earthquake dynamics
• Deep-sea ecosystem dynamics.

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Sedimentology Applications

• Issues
• The mountainous terrain and high rainfall result
  in episodic fluxes in sediment transportation
• There is a poor understanding of these important
  episodic events which deposit large amounts of
  sediments
• A better understanding of fine sediment
  accumulation is required to better understand
  these events

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• Neptunes Role
• Provide information relating to the frequency and
  intensity of sedimentary events
• Provide sampling under adverse weather conditions
  (i.e. severe storms)
• Provide further information on sediment-water
  interface
• Allow the possibility of fluid and particle
  tracer experiments

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Fluid Flux

• Fluids flow through fractures in seafloor and the
  through overlying sediments
• These fluids interact with the sediments
• Neptune will provide continued measurement of
  chemical interaction between fluid fluxes and the
  sediment
• These fluids are responsible for important
  mineral deposits and influence sea-water
  composition
• Installation of particle capture devices above
  smokers
• The electrical conductivity is related to
  porosity, pore water salinity, temperature,
  texture, degree of partial melt, and composition

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Gas Hydrates

• Release of fluids and gases, such as methane, is
  observed to occur at plate convergence zones
• Methane hydrates are suspected to be a link to
  past climate warming periods
• Neptune will provide simultaneous measurement of
  seismicity, fluxes from the sediment, and fluid
  composition over a long period
• Gas Hydrates are important as they provide energy
  for a host of micro-organisms and are a potential
  energy resource for humans

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Ocean/Climate Dynamics

• It is believed that coastal upwelling may be an
  important factor in the global carbon cycle, data
  from Neptune will help to confirm this hypothesis
• Profiles of the water column above the nodes will
  provide information of heat, fluxes, nutrients
  and salinity
• Sinking material will be tracked from the surface
  down to the depositional environment

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Plate Tectonics

• Oceanic earthquakes are often not detected by
  land-based seismographs
• Neptune can provide long-term observations of
  strain on plate interior and boundaries
• Hypocenters for oceanic earthquakes, as
  determined by land based seismographs are often
  off by 30km or more
• Strain meters in boreholes will determine
  small-scale deformation
• Acoustic transponders will measure deformation on
  a kilometer scale
• Pressure sensors at nodes will determine vertical
  deformation during earthquakes

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Cross-Section of Juan de Fuca Plate
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Advances in understanding the seafloor
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Summary

• The main contribution made by Neptune will be a
  greater understanding of large and small scale
  episodic events such as
• Large sediment inputs during major storms and
  tectonic events
• Stress on the inner plate and plate boundary
  during earthquakes
• Planktonic blooms
• Fluid venting

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• Due to Neptunes capacity for continuous
  monitoring, we can correlate relations between
  the various oceanic events
• Information will be gathered on important oceanic
  chemical processes such as mineral precipitation
  and plate boundary reactions
• Greater information can be gathered on the
  formation and importance of gas hydrates
• Long-term observation of biological processes
  will provide a greater understanding of biotic
  controls on sedimentary processes

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The End
Thank You
Images provided courtesy of the NEPTUNE Project
(www.neptune.washington.edu www.neptunecanada.ca
)