The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has today awarded the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) one of seven individual grants that will use cutting-edge digital technology to advance environmental outcomes.
Robotic sensors disguised as boulders, or ‘smart boulders’, have been used to measure the initiation and evolution of huge seafloor avalanches for the first time, revealing some surprising findings that will help inform where best to lay the seafloor cables that keep the internet running.
The unusual geological characteristics of the seabed and underlying sediments south of the epicentre of the Boxing Day Sumatran-Andaman earthquake of 2004 contributed to the devastating power of the resulting tsunami, according to research by a US-led team involving University of Southampton researchers based at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
