In-Situ Calibration of Differential Pressure Gauges on OBSIP Ocean Bottom Seismometers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabi Laske ◽  
Adrian Doran
Keyword(s):  
Pressure Sensor ◽  
Broad Band ◽  
Pressure Gauge ◽  
Differential Pressure ◽  
P Wave ◽  
Earth Tides ◽  
Release Mechanism ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Ocean Bottom Seismometer

<p>A standard ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) package of the U.S. OBS Instrument Pool (OBSIP) carries a seismometer and a pressure sensor. For broadband applications, the seismometer typically is a wide-band or broad-band three-components seismometer, and the pressure sensor is a differential pressure gauge (DPG). The purpose of the pressure sensor is manifold and includes the capture of pressure signals not picked up by a ground motion sensor (e.g. the passage of tsunami), but also for purposes of correcting the seismograms for unwanted signals generated in the water column (e.g. p-wave reverberations).<br>Unfortunately, the instrument response of the widely used Cox-Webb DPG remains somewhat poorly known, and can vary by individual sensor, and even by deployment of the same sensor.</p><p>Efforts have been under way to construct and test DPG responses in the laboratory. But the sensitivity and long‐period response are difficult to calibrate as they  vary with temperature and pressure, and perhaps by hardware of the same mechanical specifications.  Here, we present a way to test the response for each individual sensor and deployment in situ in the ocean. This test requires a relatively minimal and inexpensive modification to the OBS instrument frame and a release mechanism that allows a drop of the DPG by 3 inches after the OBS package settled and the DPG equilibrated on the seafloor. The seismic signal generated by this drop is then analyzed in the laboratory upon retrieval of the data. </p><p>The results compare favorably with calibrations estimated independently through post‐deployment data analyses of other signals such as Earth tides and the signals from large teleseismic earthquakes. Our study demonstrates that observed response functions can deviate from the nominal response by a factor of two or greater with regards to both the sensitivity and the time constant. Given the fact that sensor calibrations of DPGs in the lab require very specific and stable environments and are time consuming, the use of in-situ DPG calibration frames pose a reliable and inexpensive alternative. </p>

Multi-parameter model building for the Qiuyue structure using four-component ocean-bottom seismometer data

Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Yuzhu Liu ◽  
Xinquan Huang ◽  
Jizhong Yang ◽  
Xueyi Liu ◽  
Bin Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Waveform Inversion ◽  
Velocity Model ◽  
P Wave ◽  
Velocity Analysis ◽  
Full Waveform Inversion ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Ocean Bottom Seismometer ◽  
Full Waveform ◽  
P Wave Velocity

Thin sand-mud-coal interbedded layers and multiples caused by shallow water pose great challenges to conventional 3D multi-channel seismic techniques used to detect the deeply buried reservoirs in the Qiuyue field. In 2017, a dense ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) acquisition program acquired a four-component dataset in East China Sea. To delineate the deep reservoir structures in the Qiuyue field, we applied a full-waveform inversion (FWI) workflow to this dense four-component OBS dataset. After preprocessing, including receiver geometry correction, moveout correction, component rotation, and energy transformation from 3D to 2D, a preconditioned first-arrival traveltime tomography based on an improved scattering integral algorithm is applied to construct an initial P-wave velocity model. To eliminate the influence of the wavelet estimation process, a convolutional-wavefield-based objective function for the preprocessed hydrophone component is used during acoustic FWI. By inverting the waveforms associated with early arrivals, a relatively high-resolution underground P-wave velocity model is obtained, with updates at 2.0 km and 4.7 km depth. Initial S-wave velocity and density models are then constructed based on their prior relationships to the P-wave velocity, accompanied by a reciprocal source-independent elastic full-waveform inversion to refine both velocity models. Compared to a traditional workflow, guided by stacking velocity analysis or migration velocity analysis, and using only the pressure component or other single-component, the workflow presented in this study represents a good approach for inverting the four-component OBS dataset to characterize sub-seafloor velocity structures.

Evolution of Caribbean subduction from P-wave tomography and plate reconstruction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Allen ◽  
Benedikt Braszus ◽  
Saskia Goes ◽  
Andreas Rietbrock ◽  
Jenny Collier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Subduction Zones ◽  
Plate Boundary ◽  
P Wave ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Ocean Bottom Seismometer ◽  
Equatorial Atlantic ◽  
The North ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Plate Reconstruction

<p>The Caribbean plate has a complex tectonic history, which makes it  particularly challenging to establish the evolution of the subduction zones at its margins. Here we present a new teleseismic P-wave tomographic model under the Antillean arc that benefits from ocean-bottom seismometer data collected in our recent VoiLA (Volatile Recycling in the Lesser Antilles) project. We combine this imagery with a new plate reconstruction that we use to predict possible slab positions in the mantle today. We find that upper mantle anomalies below the eastern Caribbean correspond to a stack of material that was subducted at different trenches at different times, but ended up in a similar part of the mantle due to the large northwestward motion of the Americas. This stack comprises: in the mantle transition zone, slab fragments that were subducted between 70 and 55 Ma below the Cuban and Aves segments of the Greater Arc of the Caribbean; at 450-250 km depth, material subducted between 55 and 35 Ma below the older Lesser Antilles (including the Limestone Caribees and Virgin Islands);  and above 250 km, slab from subduction between 30 and 0 Ma below the present Lesser Antilles to Hispaniola Arc. Subdued high velocity anomalies in the slab above 200 km depth coincide with where the boundary between the equatorial Atlantic and proto-Caribbean subducted, rather than as previously proposed, with the North-South American plate boundary. The different phases of subduction can be linked to changes in the age, and hence buoyancy structure, of the subducting plate.</p>

Crustal structure across the Southwest Newfoundland Transform Margin

1988 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 744-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. Todd ◽  
I. Reid ◽  
C. E. Keen
Keyword(s):  
Continental Crust ◽  
Transition Zone ◽  
Crustal Structure ◽  
P Wave ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Ocean Bottom Seismometer ◽  
Structure Information ◽  
Grand Banks ◽  
Air Gun ◽  
Transform Margin

A seismic-refraction survey providing deep crustal structure information of the continent–ocean boundary across the South-west Newfoundland Transform Margin was carried out using large air-gun sources and ocean-bottom seismometer receivers. Continental crust ~30 km thick beneath the southern Grand Banks (P-wave velocity = 6.2–6.5 km/s) thins oceanward to a 25 km wide transition zone. In the transition zone, Paleozoic basement of the Grand Banks (5.5–5.7 km/s) is replaced by a basement of oceanic volcanics and synrift sediments (4.5–5.5 km/s). Seaward of the transition zone the crust is oceanic in character, with a velocity gradient from 4.7 to 6.5 km/s and a thickness of 7–8 km. Oceanic layer 3 is absent. No significant thickness of intermediate-velocity (>7 km/s) material is present at the continent–ocean transition, indicating that no under-plating of continental crust has taken place. The continent–ocean transition across the transform margin is much narrower than across rifted margins, supporting the theory that formation of the transform margin is by shearing of continental plates.

scholarly journals OBS Data Analysis to Quantify Gas Hydrate and Free Gas in the South Shetland Margin (Antarctica)

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sha Song ◽  
Umberta Tinivella ◽  
Michela Giustiniani ◽  
Sunny Singhroha ◽  
Stefan Bünz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Velocity Field ◽  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Gas Hydrate ◽  
P Wave ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Ocean Bottom Seismometer ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Free Gas ◽  
Hydrate Reservoir ◽  
Gas Hydrate Reservoir

The presence of a gas hydrate reservoir and free gas layer along the South Shetland margin (offshore Antarctic Peninsula) has been well documented in recent years. In order to better characterize gas hydrate reservoirs, with a particular focus on the quantification of gas hydrate and free gas and the petrophysical properties of the subsurface, we performed travel time inversion of ocean-bottom seismometer data in order to obtain detailed P- and S-wave velocity estimates of the sediments. The P-wave velocity field is determined by the inversion of P-wave refractions and reflections, while the S-wave velocity field is obtained from converted-wave reflections received on the horizontal components of ocean-bottom seismometer data. The resulting velocity fields are used to estimate gas hydrate and free gas concentrations using a modified Biot‐Geertsma‐Smit theory. The results show that hydrate concentration ranges from 10% to 15% of total volume and free gas concentration is approximately 0.3% to 0.8% of total volume. The comparison of Poisson’s ratio with previous studies in this area indicates that the gas hydrate reservoir shows no significant regional variations.

The Next Wave in Tsunami Detection

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 67-73
Author(s):  
Stephanie Ingle ◽  
Ken du Vall ◽  
David Selby
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Pressure Gauge ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Northern Coast ◽  
Ocean Bottom Seismometer ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
Real Time Data

ABSTRACTThis technical note provides a summary of a uniquely designed tsunami early warning system consisting of an ocean bottom seismometer, an accelerometer, a differential pressure gauge, and a bottom pressure recorder. The system has advantages over other tsunameters currently in use because it receives power and reports data continuously, via fiber-optic cable, allowing for the maximum amount of lead time between receipt and analysis of data; warnings may then be issued earlier, resulting in additional time to evacuate vulnerable areas. The system was developed in a collaborative effort between Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Lighthouse R & D Enterprises, Inc., during 2006 and installed in 2007 off the northern coast of Oman on an extended portion of a preexisting physical oceanographic cabled monitoring system. The goal was to produce a system capable of determining the magnitude and mechanism of earthquakes—even very large, local ones—and of sensing the large-wavelength, low-amplitude waves characteristic of tsunamis in the open ocean. Since 2009, the system has been recognized by the International Tsunameter Partnership (commissioned by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) as operational, but it has yet to be integrated with national or regional warning centers. A numerical modeling suite was developed to estimate tsunami impact at any given location along the Omani coast and is intended to function as a complementary tool for analysis of the real-time data. Real-time data receipt combined with accurate analysis will lead to earlier and more reliable warnings that may help save additional lives.

scholarly journals Seafloor sediment thickness beneath the VoiLA broad-band ocean-bottom seismometer deployment in the Lesser Antilles from P-to-S delay times

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (3) ◽  
pp. 1758-1768
Author(s):  
Ben Chichester ◽  
Catherine Rychert ◽  
Nicholas Harmon ◽  
Robert Allen ◽  
Jenny Collier ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Velocity Structure ◽  
Confidence Region ◽  
Broad Band ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Earth Model ◽  
Ocean Bottom ◽  
Ocean Bottom Seismometer ◽  
Sediment Thickness ◽  
Delay Times ◽  
Crystalline Crust

SUMMARY Broad-band ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) deployments present an opportunity to investigate the seafloor sediment thickness, which is important for constraining sediment deposition, and is also useful for subsequent seismological analyses. The Volatile Recycling in the Lesser Antilles (VoiLA) project deployed 34 OBSs over the island arc, fore- and backarc of the Lesser Antilles subduction zone for 15 months from 2016 to 2017. Using the amplitudes and delay times of P-to-S (Ps) scattered waves from the conversion of teleseismic earthquake Pwaves at the crust–sediment boundary and pre-existing relationships developed for Cascadia, we estimate sediment thickness beneath each OBS. The delay times of the Ps phases vary from 0.20 ± 0.06 to 3.55 ± 0.70 s, generally increasing from north to south. Using a single-sediment and single-crystalline crust earth model in each case, we satisfactorily model the observations of eight OBSs. At these stations we find sediment thicknesses range from 0.43 ± 0.45 to 5.49 ± 3.23 km. To match the observations of nine other OBSs, layered sediment and variable thickness crust is required in the earth model to account for wave interference effects on the observed arrivals. We perform an inversion with a two-layer sediment and a single-layer crystalline crust in these locations finding overall sediment thicknesses of 1.75 km (confidence region: 1.45–2.02 km) to 7.93 km (confidence region: 6.32–11.05 km), generally thinner than the initial estimates based on the pre-existing relationships. We find agreement between our modelled velocity structure and the velocity structure determined from the VoiLA active-source seismic refraction experiment at the three common locations. Using the Ps values and estimates from the VoiLA refraction experiment, we provide an adjusted relationship between delay time and sediment equations for the Lesser Antilles. Our new relationship is ${{H}} = {{1.42}}{{\rm d}}{{{t}}^{ {1.44}}}$ , where H is sediment thickness in kilometres and dt is mean observed Ps delay time in seconds, which may be of use in other subduction zone settings with thick seafloor sediments.

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