Towards upgraded capability in offshore seismic studies with the new national Australian pool of ocean bottom seismographs
Alexey Goncharov A , Nicholas Rawlinson B and Bruce Goleby AA Geoscience Australia.
B Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU.
The APPEA Journal 53(2) 482-482 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ12093
Published: 2013
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.
Alexey Goncharov is a principal research scientist at Geoscience Australia. He holds a PhD (geophysics) from the St Petersburg Mining Institute in Russia. His main research projects in Australia were deep crustal studies of the Mount Isa Inlier, ocean-bottom seismograph studies, and integration of reflection and refraction seismic results at the Australian North West Margin; assessment of basement and crustal controls on hydrocarbon maturation; and, lithological interpretation of seismic velocities on the Australian South West Margin. |
Nick Rawlinson was awarded a PhD (seismology) from Monash University in 2001 and, subsequently, accepted an appointment at the Research School of Earth Sciences, ANU, wherehe has remained. His research focuses on computational aspects of seismic wave propagation, inverse theory, and seismic imaging. He now leads the WOMBAT transportable seismic-array experiment in eastern Australia. He has published widely on the seismicstructure of the Australian plate. |
Bruce Goleby is group leader of the Innovation and Specialist Services and chief geophysicist within the Energy Division, Geoscience Australia. He is now involved in geophysical, laboratory, and information management as applied to offshore petroleum and marine geophysical survey programs. He is also involved in the application of that pre-competitive geophysical data to support divisional projects, particularly the division’s CO2 storage and petroleum prospectivity investigations. He leads the development of a data management capability within Geoscience Australia to serve NOPTA and the improved delivery of the open-file petroleum data sets to the industry. |
References
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Goncharov, A., Deighton, I., Petkovic, P., Tassell, H., Mclaren, S., and Ryan, D. (2006). Basement and crustal controls on hydrocarbon maturation: lessons from Bremer Sub-Basin for other frontier exploration areas. The APPEA Journal 46, 237–59.
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