$335 million, UW's "Neptune" system to help scientists study ocean floor

Billed as the greatest advancement in ocean study in 135 years, an ambitious project to measure volcanoes, currents and other activity across hundreds of miles of ocean floor using underwater robots, real-time Internet video and 850 miles of high-speed cable is about to begin off the Northwest coast.

A consortium of ocean scientists today will announce that the National Science Foundation (NSF) will invest about $335 million over six years to build a three-phase international ocean-observing system. Central to the project will be the University of Washington's "Neptune" system, measuring changes on the Juan de Fuca Plate.

Tuesday night, Steve Bohlen, president of the Washington-based Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI), said the project represents the greatest leap in ocean study since the early 1870s. That's when ships started taking ocean measurements — a system that has remained in the fore ever since.

"This is the beginning of a new revolution," Bohlen said. "It's new science, it's big science and it's big risk. But that's how we make big scientific advances."

Bohlen said the UW is in line to receive $170 million in NSF funding. First will come a $2.2 million planning phase; a $130 million construction phase will start next year. Maintenance and operating costs will account for the rest.

The Neptune (North East Pacific Time-integrated Undersea Networked Experiments) system is the brainchild of UW scientist John Delaney, who has been dreaming of such a lab for almost 25 years.

"These new approaches are going to revolutionize not only how we humans look at oceans and the Earth, but eventually — in the time of our children's children — the way we manage our entire planet," Delaney said in a draft release.

The Juan de Fuca Plate is one of about a dozen major tectonic plates on Earth. Scientists say it was chosen because of its relatively small size and its proximity to North America. It has a diverse ecosystem and is home to major events such as plate movement, volcanic eruptions and chimneys that vent water that is 700 degrees Fahrenheit.

Project leaders say the underwater research facility will help to unlock secrets about the ocean's ability to absorb greenhouse gases and how seafloor stresses cause tsunamis. It will also help improve weather forecasting and the management of sealife such as salmon.

"Educators, students and the general public will be welcome to 'join' scientists as they explore the ocean with access to video and data via the Internet," the UW and JOI wrote in a draft release provided by JOI late Tuesday.

The Neptune project is actually smaller than the grand vision Delaney first presented, although Bohlen said it could grow over time.

A complementary Canadian program, managed by the University of Victoria, will be built on the Canadian part of the plate but will not be plugged into the American system as initially hoped.

The two other components to the ocean-observing system include a shallow coastal observatory, which will cost about $75 million to build, and a global system, which will provide comparisons elsewhere in the world at a cost of $60 million.

Also being announced today as part of the project is a $29 million grant for crunching the huge amount of data that will come out of the observatories. That part of the project will use supercomputers and will be led by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institution, said the Neptune project will overnight make the Northwest a leader in the field of ocean study.

"Done properly, five years from now it will revolutionize oceanography," Haymet said. "It's going to start in the Northwest, and people in the Northwest should be justifiably proud of that."