Laboratory Experimentations for New Hydrothermal Monitoring Systems Using ADCPs

<jats:p>Deep ocean mining in a hydrothermal area needs careful environmental impact assessments in terms of preservation and mitigation of biodiversity. The General Environmental Technos Co. Ltd., or KANSO TECHNOS, for short, has participated in environmental impact assessments in hydrothermal areas in the Izu-Ogasawara and the East China Sea areas (Ishida et al., 2011). Through the experience, we suggest a method of using acoustic systems such as acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) for monitoring of suspended matters and benthos in hydrothermal areas. Thus, we try to do in-situ observations, called Tow-yo (or Towing) observations with ADCPs (Komaki and Ura, 2009; Komaki et al., 2010). This system has a great advantage in enabling the measurement of great environmental factors, echo intensity and current velocity in a large range. To confirm exactly what the substances are and how large they are from the measured echo intensity data, we tried laboratory experiments in water tanks with echo sounders and turbidity sensors. These results will finally be integrated in a simulation model to predict substances from in-situ data in deep water for future monitoring systems.</jats:p>