Cork students get involved in deep-ocean research

Two Cork schools are supporting one of the boldest deep-ocean research projects ever to be undertaken in Europe.

The SEA-SEIS project, led by Dr. Sergei Lebedev from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) was launched last week from Cobh, County Cork.

The project team will explore the farthest depths of the Atlantic Ocean, using 18 state-of-the-art ocean bottom seismometers to measure movement at the ocean floor, hundreds of kilometres off the coast of Ireland.

In the leadup to the launch, secondary schools from across the country were invited to put forward names for the each of the seismometers, which had, up until then, just been numbered 1-18.

Names from two Cork schools were chosen for the seismometers. ‘Sebastian’, after the character in ‘The Little Mermaid’, as proposed by Gaelcholaiste Carrigaline, and ‘Eve’, as the seismometer will be ‘eavesdropping’ on the Earth, as proposed by the 5th Year Chemistry Class at St. Patrick’s College, Gardiner’s Hill.

Each seismometer is now named and will be labelled before they reach the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, where they will remain in place for the next two years. The network will cover the entire Irish offshore area, with several sensors also being placed in UK and Icelandic waters.

Through ongoing social media output and ship-to-classroom video links, schools will be able to follow the progress of the RV Celtic Explorer and the deployment of the seismometers, over the next three weeks.