MERMAIDs reveal secrets from below the ocean floor
Monday, February 4, 2019 - 12:10
in Earth & Climate
Floating seismometers dubbed MERMAIDs -- Mobile Earthquake Recording in Marine Areas by Independent Divers -- reveal that Galápagos volcanoes are fed by a mantle plume reaching 1,900 km deep. By letting their nine MERMAIDs float freely for two years, an international team of researchers created an artificial network of oceanic seismometers that could fill in one of the blank areas on the global geologic map, where otherwise no seismic information is available.