About the Move toward Observatory Science
NEPTUNE
US – MARS is a step toward this much larger, regional cabled observatory. It will encircle the Juan de Fuca continental plate off Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia
NEPTUNE
Canada – NEPTUNE is a joint project of oceanographers in Canada and the United States. Construction on the Canada portion will begin in 2007.
ORION – the Ocean Research Interactive Observatory Network, an overarching initiative to study the oceans with new technology. Read the ORION Newsletter for breaking news.
Ocean.US – The national office for sustained and integrated ocean observations
Group on Earth Observations (GEO) – more than 65 nations are building a Global Earth Observing System of Systems to better understand our planet
Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) – UNESCO's ocean-observatory planning arm
Ocean Observatories at a Glance – more observatory resources from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Other Cabled Observatories
VENUS – a cabled observatory 90 m (300 feet) deep off Victoria, British Columbia. Data started flowing in early 2006 and can be viewed on their website.
Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory – a sturdy tripod off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, with instruments monitoring both air and ocean conditions
Rutgers University Coastal Ocean Observation Lab – real-time and archived data from Rutgers University's collection of gliders, buoys, and the LEO-15 cabled observatory off New Jersey
PLUTO – a tropical cabled observatory 18 m (59 feet) deep in the Pacific, at the Liquid Jungle Lab in Panama
PRIMO – a cabled observatory under the Antarctic ice, scheduled to be built in 2006
Bonne Bay Marine Observatory – about 18 m (59 feet) deep in a Newfoundland fjord
More About the MARS Science Experiments
The links below also appear on individual pages about each of the MARS science experiments.
Eye-in-the-Sea
 |
Dr. Edith Widder - inventor of Eye in the Sea Ocean Research and Conservation Association |
Eye-in-the Sea: An Innovative, Unobtrusive Camera System – NOAA Ocean Explorer
NOAA Operation Deep Scope 2005 – pictures, video clips, and a daily log from a 2005 expedition to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico
A marine bioluminescence primer for teachers. From Bioscience Explained.
The How and Why of Bioluminescence – Dr. Widder’s educational site about bioluminescence
Popular Mechanics on Eye in the Sea's 2006 test run in Monterey Canyon
A short animation shows how Eye in the Sea will arrive and start work at MARS [2 Mb Quicktime file courtesy Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution]
Benthic Rover
 |
Dr. Ken Smith MBARI Senior Scientist and inventor of the benthic rover Smith's UCSD research lab page |
The carbon cycle explained by NASA - or animated on an EPA kids' page
Marine snow in Wikipedia
The Spring Rain and Food to the Abyss - marine snow described by Woods Hole scientist Susumu Honjo
What Grows Up Must Fall Down – the basics of marine snow, sedimentation, and climate change, from New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
Seafloor Seismometer
 | Paul McGill |
More details from our project partners at UC Berkeley
MBARI's seismometer felt the massive 2004 Sumatran earthquake – MBARI homepage news
2002 installation of the seismometer – covered by the San Francisco Chronicle
1997 news release on the seafloor seismometer's precursor. Called MOISE, it was the first ROV-installed seismometer
How seismometers work [PDF] – a one-page explanation from IRIS, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
Earthquakes of the last week – see the current U.S. map and zoom in on your hometown
The San Andreas and San Gregorio fault systems explained by the United States Geologic Survey
Fly over the faults in Google Earth (part of a USGS tour of the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake)
Deep-sea Environmental Sample Processor
 |
Dr. Chris Scholin MBARI Senior Scientist Leader of the ESP design team |
Web site with details of ESP design, development, and deployments
Evolution of a Robotic Underwater Biochemical Laboratory [600 kb PDF] – technical report about the second-generation ESP
Robotic DNA lab helps scientists – MBARI homepage news story
NASA’s Astrobiology magazine covers the ESP’s prospects at hydrothermal vents
ALOHA Mooring
 |
Dr. Bruce Howe University of Washington |
 |
Dr. Roger Lukas University of Hawaii |
 |
Dr. Emmanuel Boss University of Maine |
Canyons, currents, and algal blooms - an MBARI homepage story about how water currents bring life to Monterey Bay
McLane Research Laboratories - the vertical profiler manufacturer
More about moored (vertical) profilers - from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution