Design and preliminary testing of a continuous offshore resistivity method

Abstract

A continuous offshore resistivity method has been designed for use in shallow, multimethod, marine geophysical surveys. This inexpensive system employs towed electrodes near the sea surface and is compatible with other ship-board equipment. Limited field testing indicates that the offshore resistivity results obtained, after processing to assess the influence of bottom topography, contain useful information on lateral sub-bottom resistivity contrasts which may be of geological significance. Further testing and development of the method appears to be warranted as it should not only provide additional data on sub-bottom material but could be extremely useful in studying the conductive overburden problem often encountered in galvanic surveys on land.