Abstract: Entering the new millennium, the ocean science community begins to establish a seafloor observatory network to explore and understand the temporal variability of ocean system including its physical, chemical, biological and geological processes. This will be the third platform of Earth system observation after the first one from the land and ocean surface, and the second from the space. The real-time continuous observations from the sea floor will establish a long-term presence in the ocean and, hence, fund...

Key words: sea floor, earth system, real-time observation, deep-sea processes