EXPERIMENTS ON WIDE-ANGLE DEEP SEISMIC PROFILING FROM A SINGLE SHIP

Abstract

In contrast to classical wide-angle deep seismic profiling (WDSP) using two ships, in the single-ship version (WDSP-1) the ship tows at least two detector streamers, one in the near zone (NZ) and the other in the far zone (FZ), so that subcritically reflected waves (from chosen reflectors at depth) are received by the first streamer, and supercritically reflected and refracted waves by the second. Experiments with this method in 1987-88 focused on the detection of seismic waves in the far zone. The WDSP experiments of 1987-1988 indicated that if certain technical problems can be solved, the single-ship version of the method should be suitable for studying the structure of deep sedimentary and crystalline layers of the crust beneath the sea.