Tour The NOAA Aquarius Underwater Laboratory

Take a virtual tour to learn more about the NOAA, Aquarius Underwater Laboratory: America's "Inner Space" Station. Aquarius is the only undersea laboratory dedicated to marine science operating in the world. Owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and managed by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW), Aquarius operates 4.5 kilometers offshore of Key Largo, Florida 20 meters beneath the surface. Aquarius was originally conceived and funded by NOAA's National Undersea Research Program (NURP) in the mid 1980s. The underwater laboratory was built by Victoria Machine Works in 1986-87. Initial deployment in the U.S. Virgin Islands before Hurricane Hugo struck in 1989, and devastated St. Croix. Aquarius was retrieved from the seafloor in 1990 and was moved to North Carolina where it was refurbished and then redeployed in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary in 1993.

Please visit source: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technol...

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