Probing offshore gas deposits

Underwater observatories are being installed on the ocean floor off British Columbia to gain knowledge about the formation of gas deposits below the floor.

Marine scientists are currently installing the third observatory in a program that started in July and is covering an area about 45 miles to 120 miles off Vancouver Island.

It is designed to monitor changes in pressure associated with the seismically active setting and increase understanding of the gas deposits.

Expedition co-chief scientist Andy Fisher, from the University of California at Santa Cruz, told the Vancouver Sun that the experimental platforms are important because the ocean is the “largest aquifer on the planet. … We know it’s made up of many sections, but we have no idea how these parts connect or how they interact with one another.”

The current expedition, operating under the name Juan de Fuca Ridge, is using the scientific research vessel Joides Resolution to drill boreholes to about 1,700 feet to install the observatories, which can collect samples and data to learn more about water pressures, temperatures, chemistry and microbiology within the rocks and sediments of the ocean crust.

The current expedition is scheduled to return to Victoria, B.C., on Sept. 19.

—Gary Park