Where on Earth is best to build a large underwater lab complex?

Let's say I'm an extremely rich and somewhat secretive research group who wants to carry out experiments and such away from the prying eyes of the public. One of the obvious ideas for the location of a large laboratory would be underwater, where you don't have to hide it under some alternative identity to keep people away and there are far fewer rules and regulations to deal with outside of the ones you set yourself. So, assuming I have the resources to build such a place, where would be my best options to construct it if I want to take advantage of as many natural resources as possible? Just to be specific enough, this base of operations would need to be somewhat independent, but still able to obtain supplies from the outside world via submarines and such. It would need to be able to house a staff of at least several hundred as well as large animals, both terrestrial and seagoing (for experimental purposes). Below are some of the resources I'd like to utilize in order to make it seem more grounded in the real world.

1. Close enough to geothermal vents and/or plate boundaries so that geothermal power is an option to help reduce energy costs
2. Close enough to the surface to take in some amount of sunlight for greenhouses, not be crushed under the pressure of the water around it (strong building materials should help combat this), and generally help people's circadian clocks stay somewhat stable.
3. However, it also needs to be far enough under the ocean to be hidden from the general public (governments really don't matter as much)
4. Possibly somewhere that ocean currents could be used to help generate power (I've heard of this idea, but it's kind of icing on the cake)

Other than that, if there are any other advantages to a certain location, then that's even better!

posted over 6 years ago

TheTimeVoyager‭

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