The NEPTUNE Project - a cabled ocean observatory in the NE Pacific: Overview, challenges and scientific objectives for the installation and operation of Stage I in Canadian waters

NEPTUNE (North-East Pacific Undersea Networked Experiments) will be an innovative network of many sub-sea observatories linked by about 3,000 km of powered, electro-optic cable covering most of the Juan de Fuca Plate (200,000 sq km), North-East Pacific, with shore stations at Port Alberni, BC and probably Nedonna Beach, OR (www.neptunecanada.ca, www.orionprogram.org, www.neptune.washington.edu). Each observatory will host and power many scientific instruments on the surrounding seafloor, in boreholes in the seafloor, and buoyed into the water column. Remotely operated and autonomous vehicles will reside at depth, powered or recharged at observatories and directed from distant labs. Continuous near-real-time multidisciplinary measurement series will extend over 25 years. 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 ocean biota/fisheries at all depths; deep-sea sedimentation, ecosystem dynamics and biodiversity; and engineering and computational systems research. These involve interacting processes, long-term changes, and chaotic, episodic events difficult to study and quantify by traditional means.