Long-term strong motion Seafloor Earthquake Measurement System

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5875773

Lopez, A A

A new generation seismic system which measures strong motion in marine sediments has been developed and deployed. The system consists of three subsystems: a seafloor data acquisition package and two shipboard packages that send commands to and record data from the seaflor package. Communication between the two systems is via acoustic telemetry. The seaflor unit is powered by lithium batteries and has an operational life of four years. The seafloor unit is microprocessor controlled and uses a three-axis accelerometer package to continuously measure sediment accelerations from .001 to 10 cm/sec/sup 2/. The data are digitized at a 100 hertz rate and, providing the pre-established event selection criterion is satisfied, they are stored in a seven-million bit, nonvolatile, magnetic bubble memory. In addition to recording seismic data, the shipboard subsystem can monitor the status of the seafloor package and change the operating characteristics if necessary. This paper describes the design, development, and deployment of the Seafloor earthquake Measurement System along with future applications of the system.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5875773
• Report Number(s): SAND-86-0194; CONF-8604142-1; ON: DE86007632
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580201* -- Geophysics-- Seismology & Tectonics-- (1980-1989)
580203 -- Geophysics-- Geophysical Survey Methods-- (1980-1989)
COMPUTERS
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
DESIGN
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MICROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
MICROPROCESSORS
SEA BED
SEISMIC ARRAYS
SEISMIC DETECTORS
SEISMOGRAPHS