Imagine an underwater system of robots and cameras that monitors every movement of the seafloor, even deep-sea earthquakes, in real time.

Right now scientists are building such a network off the Oregon coast. People often see the devastating images of earthquakes taken from the land, but there's little information available about where many of these earthquakes originate.



For instance, many faults exist hundreds of feet under the sea surface. But that's about to change.

"This moment we're laying fiber optic across the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate," said John Delaney, an Oceanography professor at the University of Washington.

Delaney has been leading a team of researchers building a 500-mile cable network that stretches from Pacific City more than 200 miles out to sea. Eventually, monitoring stations will be built along the cables that will feed back to shore real time data tracking everything from volcanic eruptions to earthquakes.

"For the first time we're actually going to be able to locate relatively small earthquakes with reasonable accuracy," said Ian Madin, chief scientist at the Oregon Department of Geology.

Madin added that the cables will stretch across the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a fault that lies off the Oregon coast. Scientists believe this fault could rupture at any time, causing a destructive earthquake.

"If there are earthquakes going on, then it will tell us a lot about what the shape of the fault is and that has a huge impact on what kind of tsunami is going to be produced," said Madin.

Specifically, the data could reveal how big that tsunami might be.

However, Madin added the undersea network won't help scientists get any closer to predicting an earthquake. "Even in an area that is completely wired liked the San Andrea's fault, we still don't know what kind of earthquake activity precedes an earthquake," he said.

But it will help scientists better understand what could happen and help communities prepare.

The $126 million dollar project was funded through federal grant money. The research team started putting out the cable last month. They hope to complete the project in the next three years.