|
Site Locations »» |
| European Ocean Margin |
The European Ocean Margin extends from the continents to approx. 4000 m depth which covers about 15,000 km circumference from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea. This includes an area of approx. 3 million km2. The zone of extends from 30° N to 80° N and from 35° W to 45° E.
This area is important for resources, such as minerals, hydrocarbons and fisheries besides providing a platform for important scientific research of the continental seas. The biodiversity is believed to exceed the amount found in the European main land. Considering the ocean and earth dynamics in this region, natural hazards such as submarine slides, earthquakes and associated tsunamis and cyclonic inflow-outflow damages are prominent.
This ocean margin includes areas from the Arctic, Subarctic (Iceland, Norway and Finland) North Atlantic Drift (Ireland, France and United Kingdom), Atlantic Subtropical Gyre (Portugal and Spain) to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The amount of research conducted in these areas does not compare, however, to the amount of importance associated with these regions and hence is considered to be poorly sampled and documented.
The various ESONET regions have been established by variations in the plate tectonics, sea floor features and ocean dynamics. The aim is to provide representative monitoring around Europe. Seismic activity in Europe is generally along the southern margin of the continent associated with collision with the African Plate beneath the Mediterranean Sea. Plate boundaries extend into the Atlantic Ocean at the Straits of Gibraltar and to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Seismicity is evident throughout the length of the Mid-Atlantic ridge from the Azores to Iceland.
The EU sponsored project HERMES project (Hotspot Ecosystem Research on the Margins of European Seas) has identified sea floor features around Europe that are sites of fluid flow, structural instability or foci for biodiversity. In conjunction with projects like the HERMES important preliminary research could be achieved, besides achieving technical capabilities and expertise from research projects like MARS and NEPTUNE conducted in the USA and the Canadian western continental margins.
Fig: ESONET Site Locations
| Numbers Involved (planning) |
It is planned that 10 regional observatories are built in conjunction to other observatory networks like MARS, NEPTUNE and BOOM. It is also aimed that each of the observatories would be governed by their own lead institutions and effectively occupies a space within the ESONET network for information and technology exchange. Data will be interfaced to national and international data centers. The likely cost of the subsea network infrastructure is 130-220 M€.
In addition, a mobile response observatory will be available for rapid deployment in areas of anthropogenic or natural disasters to provide data for environment management and government agencies.
It is estimated that the total system will comprise approximately 5000km of fiber optic sub sea cables
linking observatories to the land via junction box terminations on the sea floor. The cables will provide power to observatory instruments and two-way real-time data telemetry capability using Internet protocols. A phased development is proposed from use of conventional autonomous or satellite telemetry observatories on the key sites to integration of a fully cabled system.
| Observatory Locations |
| Related Overall Costs for each project |
