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MOSS LANDING, Calif. - There's been a lot of buzz for a new underwater sea observatory on the Central Coast. Known as "MARS," the laboratory is the work of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
The observatory is the first deep-sea ocean lab of it's kind located offshore of the continental United States. It took 6 years and $13.5 million to complete the project.
The lab is found 3,000 feet below the ocean surface in the Monterey Bay. The first data was retrieved November 10th.
MBARI explains, like the Hubble Space Telescope, the MARS Observatory is not designed for human occupation. All the data retrieved is gathered by remote control from scientists working above water.
The lab will essentially monitor the health of the ocean and watch the acid levels. A future experiment will also attach a seismometer, which will record future earthquake activity.
President and CEO of MBARI, Marcia McNutt says there is a global and a local impact. She explains, "For the first time, we'll be able to monitor events as they happen on the ocean floor, and on the ocean's timescale... rather than waiting for them to happen on our timescale when we can get a ship or equipment out there."
The initial goal of MBARI was to be "the NASA of the ocean." McNutt says thanks to their accomplishments, "we can be in the ocean waiting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week... 365 days a year!"
MARS is designed to stay underwater for at least 30 years.
