Towards upgraded capability in offshore seismic studies with the new National Australian Pool of Ocean Bottom Seismographs

Abstract

In 2013, Australia, for the first time in its history, will obtain a national pool of ocean-bottom seismographs (OBSs) suitable for multi-scale experiments at sea and for onshore-offshore combined observations. Twenty broadband OBS instruments will be purchased for short- and long-term deployment (up to 12 months) to a maximum depth of 6 km. The instruments will be made available to Australian researchers through ANSIR, with only the costs of mobilisation and deployment to be met. It is anticipated that the OBS facility will greatly enhance the research capabilities of Australian scientists in the area of Earth imaging, offshore exploration, and natural hazard assessment. OBS experiments in Australia have been limited so far, with the only data set collected by Geoscience Australia in 1995–96 on a number of coincident reflection/refraction seismic transects across the northwestern Australian Margin. The main findings from that experiment will be reviewed in the context of recent OBS data processing and acquisition advances. The scope of the experiments with the new national Australian pool of OBSs will be presented, as well as practicalities and logistics of the OBS experiments.