A thin fiber cable laying system for mobile deep seafloor observation

This paper describes the development of submarine thin fiber cable and its laying system for mobile and expandable deep seafloor real-time observatory for geo-scientific studies. The thin fiber cable laying system was designed to handle easily by the general research apparatuses on the research vessels and has a ability to lay more than 10 km of cable on the seafloor. The performance of the laying system was confirmed by the several towing tank experiments using the genuine research apparatus.