Deep sea borehole observatories ready and capturing seismic waves in the western Pacific

Digital broadband seismometer networks and GPS networks are the recent sources of rapid progress in solid Earth geophysics. But they do not exist beneath the oceans. The lack of observatories in deep oceans that cover 71% of the Earth's surface has been considered a major deficiency in the seismic network by the scientific community. About 80% of the present plate boundary is located in the oceans and about 90% of seismic energy release is earthquakes beneath the sea floor, mostly at plate subduction zones. Ocean basins and continents that make up our environments are not mere superficial features. They are surface manifestations of plate tectonics, mantle mixing, and core‐mantle interactions invigorated by the recycling of the oceanic plates.