Group To Map Depths of the Ocean

The University of Victoria’s Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) is exploring the deepest corners of the world’s oceans. On August 25, ONC deployed exploration vessel (E/V) Nautilus and research vessel (R/V) Thomas G. Thompson on a three-week expedition across eight of its west coast observatories in the Salish Sea and Pacific Ocean. The observatories span a wide range of environments from Canada’s busiest coastal waterway to the Juan de Fuca volcanic ridge, 186 miles offshore.

Both vessels will provide real-time video streams of the ocean abyss to observers around the world. Each will vessel will be outfitted with systems to measure underwater landslides, microphones for whale detection and to analyze ship nose, sensors to measure how offshore gas hydrates change as climate changes as well as a tsunami meter to better predict coastal flooding. The team onboard the vessels will also map the seafloor.

ONC is a University of Victoria initiative and manages cabled ocean observatories off the west coast of British Columbia and in the Arctic.

Follow the progress of the vessels here.