Sea Floor System for an In-Situ Heat Transfer Experiment

A seafloor platform is being developed to measure the In Situ thermal conductivity of deep ocean clays. The system will implant a 400 watt isotope heat source into the red clay sediments of the deep ocean. Thermal sensors will be implanted around the heat source to radial distances of two meters. These sensors will record the temperature build up in the sediments over a one year period. The data will be recorded and stored on the structure for retrieval via an acoustic telemetry link to a surface ship at three month intervals. An important part of the system will be to accurately core samples of the heat affected sediment for laboratory chemical and geotechnical analysis. The structure and all sediment samples will be recovered on a synthetic line at the end of the experiment.