Field testing novel sensor systems for time-lapse monitoring of seafloor geohazards at globel test sites.

该项目将展示新颖的传感器系统和自主平台如何在理解被称为浊度流的海床拥抱流方面产生一步变化，浊度流是我们星球上体积上最重要的沉积物运输过程。浊流可以以每秒20米的速度移动数百公里，它们对海底管道和承载全球95%数据流量（包括互联网和金融市场）的电信电缆网络构成重大威胁。一条浊流有时携带的泥沙量是世界上所有河流年泥沙量总和的十倍。浊度流还形成了地球上最大的沉积物堆积，其中含有主要的油气储集层。它们还在全球范围内转移和封存大量的有机碳，并提供控制深海生态系统功能和多样性的营养物质。

This project will show how novel sensor systems and autonomous platforms can produce a step change in understanding of sea-bed hugging flows called turbidity currents, which are the volumetrically most important sediment transport process on our planet. Turbidity currents can travel at up to 20 m/s for hundreds of kilometres, and they pose a major hazard to seafloor pipelines, and telecommunication cable networks that carry > 95% of global data traffic (including internet and financial markets). A single turbidity current can sometimes carry ten times the annual sediment flux from all the World's rivers combined. Turbidity currents also form the largest sediment accumulations on Earth, which contain major oil and gas reservoirs. They also transfer and sequester globally significant amounts of organic carbon, and supply nutrients that control deep-sea ecosystem functioning and diversity.