November 2008: Deep seabed observatory deployed outside Pylos gulf

The first autonomous seabed observatory with a build-in tsunami waves warning system was deployed a few miles outside Pylos bay at 1673m depth. The observatory which records sea level variation is the first such autonomous system deployed in the Mediterranean basin. The real-time measurements are transmitted to the operational centre through the existing Poseidon telecommunication network.

The communication between the platform and the surface buoy is achieved through hydroacoustic modems. The tsunami detection module consists of a high resolution pressure sensor which records changes in water column pressure in high frequency time steps. The bottom observatory is also equipped with a ctd instrument for temperature and salinity recordings of the deep water environment. Additional sensors can also be hosted to the seabed platform covering possible future needs.

The deployment was made on Tuesday 11th of November 2008.The development of this deep sea site is a contribution to International and European efforts such as EMSO, EuroSITES and ESONET.