Design and test of a high-resolution acquisition system for marine seismology

Abstract

Active and passive seismology require high-resolution, low-level signal acquisition. In both methods, the equipment most widely used to acquire seismic data in the marine environment is an ocean bottom seismometer (OBS). We designed and built a high-resolution acquisition system prototype for an OBS that is mainly used in active seismic experiments in which maps are generated of the width and material of ocean bottom sublayers. Other OBS system applications, in which the objective is to estimate the location and magnitude of an earthquake require higher autonomy. When an OBS is used in a permanent seafl oor observatory with no power supply limitation, it can generate tsunami alert signals to shore.