The MARS cable connects a seafloor science node (orange) to the shore at Moss Landing, just north of Monterey. Many scientific instruments can be plugged into the node, though at the moment only the broadband seismometer (blue and white cylinder) and the fish sonar (not shown) are sending back real-time data to researchers on-shore.
BERKELEY — A newly laid, 32-mile underwater cable finally links the state's only seafloor seismic station with the University of California, Berkeley's seismic network, merging real-time data from west of the San Andreas fault with data from 31 other land stations sprinkled around Northern and Central California. A broadband seismometer placed on the ocean floor in 2002 is now connected to land by a new 32-mile underwater cable installed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The seismometer - the only seafloor seismic station off the California coast - provides better data on earthquake activity along the San Andreas Fault. Laying of the MARS (Monterey Accelerated Research System) fiber-optic cable was completed in 2007 by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) to power and collect data from a cluster of scientific instruments nearly 3,000 feet below the surface of Monterey Bay, 23 miles from the coastal town of Moss Landing. A broadband seismometer that had been placed on the seafloor in 2002 was connected to the cable on Feb. 27, 2009, obviating the need to send a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) every three months to replace the battery and collect data. "Before, we had to wait three months to even know if the instruments were alive," said Barbara Romanowicz, director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory and a UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science.
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