Assessment of seabed seismic systems

Abstract

This project was initiated to accomplish the necessary research and documentation of existing seismic techniques and systems for the study of sediments and sedimentary structures in the oceans. In this respect , it is an 'inventory' of methods and techniques for looking at small-scale features or changes in structures lying from 10 to 1000 m beneath the sea floor. It attempts to assess the vertical and lateral resolution capabilities of existing and technically feasible seismic systems. Some of the questions posed are: how closely can we determine vertical variation such as sediment layer thickness and vertical variation with depth; also lateral coherence or its disruption by such agents as facies changes, thinning or thickening, slumping, faulting; the nature of the basement structure, its areal coherence, velocity structure and associated anomalies?