2025 Annual Report
Three MBARI staff prepare for deployment of a scientific instrument on the gray metal deck of a research vessel. The researcher on the left is wearing an orange hard hat, a black hooded sweatshirt, and dark pants. The deckhand in the middle is wearing a white hard hat, sunglasses, and a dark hooded jacket. The engineer on the right is wearing a white hard hat, sunglasses, a navy-blue jacket, an orange life vest, navy-blue pants, and brown boots. All three are in silhouette in front of the bright sun. The scientific instrument has a rectangular silver metal frame, white plastic panels, a silver metal sphere, and a yellow plastic sphere, and is being moved with three yellow nylon straps and one green nylon strap attached to a crane out of frame. In the background is blue ocean, with coastal mountains and blue sky in the distance on the horizon.

MBARI’s Geo-Sense instrument monitors fluctuations in laser light along a fiber-optic cable on the ocean floor to detect changes to the seafloor and monitor seafloor processes.
Image: Aaron Micallef © 2025 MBARI

MBARI researchers deploy innovative new tech for seafloor monitoring


Geo-Sense is a portable instrument developed by MBARI’s Seafloor Processes Team and Sintela that uses distributed acoustic sensing for long-term, real-time, high-resolution observations of the geological processes that sculpt the seafloor.

By measuring minute fluctuations in laser light along a fiber-optic cable, Geo-Sense can detect and locate events that alter the seafloor, such as earthquakes, currents, underwater landslides, and fluid seepage. These processes can be relatively small in scale, yet play a major role in shaping continental margins.

In the future, data acquired with this innovative platform will support improved assessments of geohazards and provide critical information to guide decision-making related to underwater infrastructure, risk mitigation, and environmental management.

Expanding MBARI’s capacity for ocean research with a new state-of-the-art ship

The arrival of a new flagship research vessel, David Packard, marks the start of an exciting new chapter in MBARI’s work.