Outline of plans

Since its birth 4.6 billion years ago, the interior of the earth has been active continuously . And this gave rise to earthquakes, volcanic eruption, growth and drift of the continents and all the important phenomena of the earth. The activity of the atmosphere and hydrosphere greatly influence our living environment. It is now clear that the activities of the earth from the surface to the core are all closely related as one system - THE EARTH -

Instruments, such as seismometers and magnetometers are the stethoscopes and eyes for listening and watching the earth's interior using seismic waves and electromagnetic waves. The observatories which continuously observe and measure earthquakes, earth's magnetism, crustal movement and other phenomena are one of the most useful facilities for the study of the earth.

These observatories, however, are almost all located on land. And in the Pacific Ocean and other oceanic areas, eyes and ears for observing the interior of the earth are very limited in number and geographic spread. In order to understand the natural activities of the earth from the surface to the core, it is necessary to observe the conditions of the deep interior of the earth from various angles.

Our goal is to clarify the global activities of the earth by developing an earth observation network in the oceanic areas particularly the Pacific for integrated observation of earthquakes, geomagnetism, geodetic changes, tsunamis, crustal movements and other activities of the earth.

We are planning to cover the entire Pacific Ocean by the network. During the first five years, we anticipate establishing observatories for earthquakes, crustal movements, and geomagnetism at 20 sites (15 on land, 5 seafloor) covering one fourth (1/4) of the Pacific Ocean. To accomplish our objective, it will be necessary to install, maintain, and manage the observation stations. And it will be particularly important to develop, design and manufacture marine observation systems, organize the observed data, exchange data and information both internationally and domestically, and of course analyze and interpret the obtained data. To cope with this work, we will form the following four research groups and a management group.

Ocean Island Observation Group
Ocean-bottom Observation System Development Group
Ocean-bottom Observation Group
Data Analysis and Processing Group

Ocean Hemisphere Observation Research Center

Return to home page