Although oceans cover 70 percent of the earth’s surface, the deep blue remains mysterious.

Now, with a $2.2 million grant given to the UW to plan an underwater research facility, researchers may be able solve some of these mysteries.

If all necessary permits are obtained, the University will receive another $130 million to build the station.

The facility will be built off the coast of Washington and Oregon and will be the first in the world to span a tectonic plate, in this case the Juan de Fuca plate.

“This observatory will allow us to have a constant presence in the challenging, often harsh, ocean environment,” said Jack Barth, a professor at the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University.

With a designated research facility, researchers will have more freedom to adapt their observations. Scientists will be able to change the rate of measurements being taken by specific instruments and will also be able to move autonomous vehicles around the ocean floor.

“We will get a full picture of phenomena we’ve only glimpsed through occasional ship-based expeditions,” Barth said.

“We’ll measure the events that make a difference to marine ecosystems, carbon fluxes between the ocean and atmosphere and the ocean’s role in climate variability.”

Observations will be made from the land using computers, so unlike traditional ocean observations where scientists are aboard a research vessel, students, teachers and members of the general public will also have access to the data.

“[The research facility] will be geographically more extensive [than others in existence],” said Alan Chave, a senior scientist of applied physics and engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

“It will be more capable in terms of power, bandwidth and cyber infrastructure … the software infrastructure that makes it useful to the scientific community.”

The facility will host a variety of instruments, including sensors to measure temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll content, which indicates the amount of phytoplankton. These measurements will give scientists a clear picture of the biological state of the ocean off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

The seafloor will tell researchers more about the seafloor and the tectonic plates, including physical, biological and chemical properties.

Estimates on the time it will take to build range from three to six years, and depend heavily on the approval of the necessary permits.

Scientists will be able to use this facility to study a number of different phenomena, including coastal marine ecosystems, which provide about 25 percent of wild seafood worldwide.

“We have seen strong impacts of climate variability, like El Niño or the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, on coastal marine ecosystems,” Barth said. “The new observing capability will allow us to quantify the impact of climate variability and, hopefully, make predictions about future change.”

Reach reporter Sarah Greenleaf at news@thedaily.washington.edu.