Ocean-Bottom Seismology: Next-Generation Technology Solutions for Marine Monitoring

Researchers continue to intensify their focus on the seafloor to gain a deeper understanding of the Earth's structure, tectonic processes, and potential hazards through the acquisition of ocean-bottom seismic (OBS) data. However, the unique challenges of deep-sea environments require innovative, purpose-built engineering solutions and robust manufacturing techniques to safeguard data quality, data completeness and system reliability, while meeting scientific objectives and optimizing ease of deployment. A range of cabled and autonomous ocean bottom sensing solutions is now available, supporting the global community’s study of underwater ground motion, its dynamic properties, and natural or triggered events on the seafloor.

This poster presentation provides a comprehensive overview of the engineering challenges in the domain of OBS platforms, highlighting the advancements in technology and capability solutions that the Nanometrics team has developed to address those challenges for various configurations and use cases. With proven technologies such as integrated kinematic gimbals for levelling at all landing tilt angles, an integrated MEMS gyrocompass for precise orientation, and designs certified for deployment depths of up to 6,000 m, this poster will demonstrate that seamless multidisciplinary data collection across diverse marine environments is now more accessible than ever before. Recent technological advances include customer deliveries of both SMART cable seismic instrumentation and an integrated Cabled OBS observatory, expanding options to support a wide range of application-driven sensing instruments and dataloggers. This continuous innovation aims to facilitate further understanding of the dynamic properties in these challenging deep ocean environments.