Project Title: “The Seafloor Society: Science, Technology, and Policy along North America’s Pacific Coast”

This project explores North America’s deep historical connection to the Pacific seafloor. The seafloor’s crucial presence in our daily lives and collective pasts is often overlooked because of its remoteness. The project will focus on the submarine cable system connected to Oregon’s coastline, which supports a robust Internet infrastructure linking the state and region to both the seafloor and countries across the Pacific. Investigating the history of Oregon’s seafloor cable system is an innovative way to approach environmental disasters and resilience. It shifts our attention to the low-visibility infrastructure centered on the seafloor and helps us to appreciate what a critical and vulnerable environment it is.