Welcome

Introducing Seepology as a new and crossdisciplinary science relevant for all aspects of life, chemistry, and processes on Earth and other interstellar bodies.

Welcome to a new multidisciplinary scientific subject, simply called “Seepology”. It encompasses all physical, chemical, and biological aspects relating to the seepage of fluids (liquids and gases) through the Terrestrial and Marine / Lacustrine surfaces of Earth and other planets and moons. It has been instigated by the immense new knowledge gathered about the importance of fluid flow especially on the ocean floor, over the last 30 years. Since one of the most important discoveries in natural sciences was made over the past decennium, the discovery of hot vents at the East Pacific Rise, in 1977, there have been continuous discoveries, descriptions, and analyses of all types of hot and cold vents, springs and seeps (e.g., fluid flow) through, not only the seafloor, but also through the terrestrial surface.

Recent Article

The seafloor covers an area which is about 3 times larger than the visible land-surface. Most of this surface is still unknown – because water is a ‘black body’ substance, when it comes to the electromagnetic spectrum – it absorbs most of the visual light that hits it. In contrast to sound-waves, the light rays have very low transmissivity through ocean water. Because of this lack of visual access, we have just started to scratch the submarine surface of our planet. We map the vastness of the ocean floor using acoustic systems. These data rely on human interpretation to make sense of them and to understand the processes active on the ocean floor. Over the last 20 years of collecting massive data amounts of the seafloor, we have found numerous unexpected features there, and the current rate of discovery is very high. Unexpected active volcanoes sitting at 5000 m water depth, and submarine, massive asphalt volcanoes have recently been documented. Read More...