Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/D521449/1
Development of MERMAID: an autonomous floating oceanic platform to detect earthquakes suitable to improve global tomographic Earth models.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr FJM Simons, University College London, Earth Sciences
- Grant held at:
- University College London, Earth Sciences
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Science Topics:
- Survey & Monitoring
- Properties Of Earth Materials
- Mantle & Core Processes
- Geohazards
- Abstract:
- Determining the structure of the Earth's interior is one of the most fundamental pursuits in Earth science. Seismic tomography is the premier tool in this endeavor, since seismic waves sample the Earth directly. Seismic wave speeds depend mainly on the temperature and composition of the materials constituting the Earths' crust, mantle and core. Thus, wave speed maps provide a unique window inside the Earth and can be interpreted in terms of the geological processes determining the structure and evolution of our planet. Earthquakes, however, occur mostly in narrow zones of seismic activity defined by plate boundaries. Seismic stations recording ground motion due to earthquakes are mostly land-based, except for ocean-bottom seismometers. These are very expensive, both to build and deploy, and as a consequence, there are not that many of them. Thus, our knowledge of the interior of the Earth is severely restricted by the lack of seismic ray coverage over the two-thirds of the Earth's surface that is ocean. We currently have a working prototype of an autonomous instrument that can drift passively at a depth of about one kilometer beneath the ocean surface. Our MERMAID-001 has demonstrated it can record earthquake signals as they are converted into water pressure changes at the bottom of the sea. This was good news: there is a lot of noise in the oceans, most of it not due to earthquakes, but generated by ships, whales, and local, inconsequential earthquakes. After every successful recording, a MERMAID float will come up, register its surfacing position by taking a GPS reading, and transmit the data to a satellite network. MERMAID-001 can't do this yet. In this grant application, we are looking for financial support to help us develop the MERMAID program further. We will need to deploy the first prototype in short-term tests a few more times, to straighten out some remaining problems. But what we really need is a second instrument (which we will call MERMAID-002) that has been improved so that it can be taken out on longer-term tests. The longer the test, the more different earthquakes the instrument will be able to record, the better we may test the decision-making software that will tell it to surface and transmit the data, and the better our understanding will be of what, ultimately, will be achieved by a global fleet of such instruments, deployed as a permanent, moving, network. This sort of research is truly interdisciplinary: it brings together scientists (seismologists, like myself, but also computer scientists), ocean and electrical engineers, and physical and biological oceanographers --- even biologists, studying whales. We also see a lot of educational opportunities. If we succeed in having a network of a few hundred MERMAID instruments in a few years' time, we could have a classroom 'adopt' a float, by following its drift across the oceans, downloading the data it records, and being very much a part of exciting scientific discoveries as they are being made.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/D521449/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- New Investigators Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- New Investigators
This grant award has a total value of £52,214
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs | Total - Indirect Costs | Total - Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £4,740 | £17,582 | £24,633 | £2,181 | £3,079 |
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