Axial Base Deep Profiler Mooring

The Axial Base Deep Profiler Mooring is located near the base of the Axial Seamount at the far western edge of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, at ~2,600 meters water depth. Axial Seamount is the largest and most magmatically robust volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, ~350 km from the continental shelf, and represents an open-ocean or pelagic site in the continuum of observing scales represented in the Regional Cabled Array. Here, large-scale currents including the North Pacific Current, the subpolar gyre, and the northern end of the California Current interact. These currents transport heat, salt, oxygen, and biota, all of which are crucial to the region’s ecosystem. Their variability ranges across timescales from daily tides to seasonal winds to interannual El Niño events to Pacific Decadal Oscillations. Because of its close proximity to the magmatically active volcano, instruments on the profiler may also capture perturbed water masses resulting from underwater eruptions at the summit and along the flanks. This mooring contains a Wire-Following Profiler that hosts six scientific instruments and moves through the water column along the mooring riser, continuously sampling ocean characteristics over a specified depth interval (150 meters below sea surface to near bottom) and is connected to an electro-optical cable that provides a large supply of power and bandwidth. The Axial Base Deep Profiler Mooring is co-located with a Low-Power junction box that collects complementary geophysical and near-seafloor water property data.