UCL team records Earth’s ‘pulse’ on ocean floor

The seismometers detect vibrations due to seismic waves and will be deployed across a region encompassing the Canary Islands and the archipelagos of Azores and Madeira. They will continuously record the Earth's ground motions — the planet’s ‘pulse’ — for a year.

Named UPFLOW (Upward mantle FLOW from novel seismic observations), the project is funded with a €2.8m grant from the European Research Council and involves collaboration with institutions in Germany, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

“This is a first of a kind seismic experiment,” said primary investigator professor Ana Ferreira, UCL Earth Sciences. “It is the first time we have covered such a large region of the North Atlantic Ocean with these highly sensitive instruments. 

“By analysing their data, we hope to better understand the massive motions occurring hundreds of kilometres deep in the Earth’s mantle — in particular, upward flows of material that we still do not understand very well. These motions are what ultimately cause volcanic eruptions and can also lead to Earthquakes.”