The work, initially known as NEPTUNE and now the Regional Scale
Nodes, is part of a larger National Science Foundation program
called the Ocean Observatories Initiative, which will create a
network of semi-permanent research outposts throughout the
global ocean. Building a cabled observatory connected to the
Internet will essentially enable ocean scientists to be in the
right place all the time. They'll have virtual access to their
deep-sea study site anytime, from anywhere in the world. By
2013, the UW team hopes to have the main fiber-optic and power
cables laid and connected to seven hubs—essentially, power
outlets and Internet connections—off the coast of Washington and
Oregon. Working with colleagues, they will design more than 100
sensors to monitor earthquakes, microbial activity, carbon flux
and a host of other ocean processes. "Not only are we putting
things at the bottom of the ocean, we're putting them next to
underwater volcanoes, and areas that are prone to earthquakes
and ground-shifts and thing