Oregon Slope Base Seafloor

The Oregon Slope Base Seafloor site is located adjacent to the continental slope off the coast of Oregon at a water depth of ~2,900 meters. The site contains a Medium-Power junction box (MJ01A) and a Low-Power junction box (LJ01A). Here, ocean water properties are profoundly impacted by the California Current and internal waves. The coastal region of the Pacific Northwest is a classic wind-driven upwelling system where nutrient-rich deep waters rise to replace warmer surface waters, resulting in high marine productivity that attracts zooplankton, fish, and marine mammals. Near-bottom fauna are periodically negatively impacted by the flow of deep waters with very low oxygen concentrations (hypoxic events), and upwelling of corrosive, acidified waters onto the continental shelf. This area is also adjacent to the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which is characterized by episodic seismic tremors. The seafloor junction boxes contain geophysical and near seafloor water column instrumentation, and are attached to an electro-optical cable that provides significant power and 1 Gb two-way communications bandwidth. This seafloor site is also co-located with a Deep and Shallow Profiler Mooring, which collect complementary water column data. When coupled with other Cabled Array and Endurance Array installations off the central Oregon coast, the Slope Base infrastructure allows for measurements of a variety of coastal phenomena, including cross-shelf and along-shelf variability.