Ireland: Tsunami detection equipment to be placed in Atlantic

By Will Goodbody

Tsunami detection and vibration monitoring equipment is to be placed on the floor of deep parts of the Atlantic Ocean as part of a new project led by Irish scientists.

The seismometers, as well as water temperature sensors and underwater sound recorders, will be used to detect offshore earthquakes and image ocean-bed geology.

The system will also detect deep offshore currents, sea-bed disturbances caused by large Atlantic storms and track the presence of whales and dolphins.

The sensors, which will be placed in 18 locations around the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of kilometres off the Irish west coast, will also include a pilot tsunami detection capability.

The Insitu Marine Laboratory for Geosystems Research (iMARL) project will be led by the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies (DIAS) and aims to improve our understanding of the ocean territory of Ireland which is ten times bigger than the landmass of the country.

"Geological, oceanographic, and biological processes interact on a daily basis in this vast territory but, until now, have been poorly understood due to a lack of observational equipment, and a need for more interaction between marine scientists and geo-scientists," said Professor Chris Bean, Senior Professor of Geophysics and Director of the DIAS School of Cosmic Physics.

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