Natural Hazards

NEPTUNE Canada has ocean bottom seismometers, bottom pressure recorders and hydrophones at most of its node sites. These record earthquakes, tsunamis, major storms, and slope failures in real time. The 10Gbsec data transmission, widespread offshore sensor network, and automated analysis systems, and alerts to specialist researchers enable a radical improvement in hazard analysis, warning and mitigation.

VENUS has instrumentation such as peizometers at the Fraser Delta front providing real-time sediment pore pressure variations that are important for understanding triggering mechanisms that result in slope failures. The advantage of VENUS is the ability to observe continuously and capture the effects of both natural cyclic variation, such as tides, and transient events, such as earthquakes.