Academic literature on the topic 'Cabled seabed observatory'

AbstractFor nearly three decades, various phases of the scientific Ocean Drilling Programs have deployed sealed-hole observatories in deep-ocean boreholes for long-term subseafloor monitoring to address a range of hydrologic and geodynamic objectives. We summarize the scientific motivation for these observatories and review some important early results from those installed in young oceanic crust and subduction zones. We also summarize the evolution of the borehole observatory designs and associated instrumentation, from simple single-interval installations with autonomous low-rate temperature and pressure monitoring to recent multiple-zone installations with sophisticated downhole instrument packages connected to seafloor cabled networks that provide power and high-rate, real-time data access. We emphasize recent advances, illustrated with example data drawn mainly from transects of borehole observatories offshore Japan and Cascadia. These examples illustrate the value of borehole observatory data in resolving a wide range of crustal geodynamic responses from long periods of gradual geodetic change and accumulation of stress to episodes of rapid deformation associated with both seafloor spreading and subduction processes.

Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 328 was devoted to the installation of an "Advanced CORK" (Circulation Obviation Retrofit Kit) in the Cascadia subduction zone accretionary prism to observe the physical state and properties of the formation as they are influenced by long-term and episodic deformation and by gas hydrate accumulation. Pressures are monitored at four levels on the outside of a standard 10 3/4-inch casing string, two above and two below the base of the gas-hydrate stability zone at 230 mbsf (m below seafloor). The casing was sealed at the bottom, leaving the inside open down to 302 mbsf for installation of a tilt meter, seismometer, and thermistor cable (scheduled for 2013). The initial data, recovered in July 2011, document an initially smooth recovery from the drilling perturbation followed by what may be a sequence of hole-collapse events. Pressure at the deepest screen is roughly 40 kPa above hydrostatic; higher pressures (80 kPa) are observed at the two screens close to the level of hydrate stability. Tidal variations at the deepest screen are in phase with ocean tides, and define a loading efficiency of 0.6, which is reasonable in light of the consolidation state of the for-mation (porosity ~0.5). Tidal signals near the level of gas hydrate stability display large phase lags, probably as a consequence of hydraulic diffusion stimulated by the large contrast in interstitial fluid compressibility at the gas-hydrate boundary. The degree of isolation among the screens, the anticipated good coupling, and the estimated strain-to-pressure conversion efficiency (~5 kPa μstrain^&minus;1) indicate that this installation will serve well to host a variety of hydrologic, seismic, and geodynamic experiments. <br><br> doi:<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2204/iodp.sd.13.02.2011" target="_blank">10.2204/iodp.sd.13.02.2011</a>

Environmental impact assessment has become an important issue for deep-sea resource mining. The International Seabed Authority has recently developed recommendations for guidelines on environmental assessment of resource mining effects. Several research and development groups have been organized to develop methods for environmental assessment of the seafloor and sub-seafloor under the “Zipangu in the Ocean program,” a part of the Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program managed by the Cabinet Office of the Japanese government. One attempt planned for long-term environment and sub-seafloor structure monitoring uses a cabled observatory system. To support this observatory plan, we began development of a system to monitor the sub-seafloor resistivity and self-potential reflecting the physicochemical properties of ore deposits and the existence of hydrothermal fluid. The system, which mainly comprises an electro-magnetometer and an electrical transmitter, detects spatio-temporal changes in subseafloor resistivity and in self-potential. Because of the project’s policy changes, cabled observatory system development was canceled. Therefore, we tried to conduct an experimental observation using only a current transmitter and a voltmeter unit. Data obtained during three and a half months show only slight overall apparent resistivity variation: as small as 0.005 Ω-m peak-to-peak. The electrode pair closest to the hydrothermal mound shows exceptionally large electric field variation, with a semidiurnal period related to tidal variation. Results indicate difficulty of explaining electric field variation by seawater mass migration around the hydrothermal mound. One possibility is the streaming potential, i.e., fluid flow below the seafloor, in response to tides. However, we have not been able to perform rigorous quantitative analysis, and further investigation is required to examine whether this mechanism is effective. The system we have developed has proven to be capable of stable data acquisition, which will allow for long-term monitoring including industrial applications.

We report 4 years of temperature profiles collected from May 2014 to May 2018 in Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Hole U1364A in the frontal accretionary prism of the Cascadia subduction zone. The temperature data extend to depths of nearly 300 m below seafloor (mbsf), spanning the gas hydrate stability zone at the location and a clear bottom-simulating reflector (BSR) at ∼230 mbsf. When the hole was drilled in 2010, a pressure-monitoring Advanced CORK (ACORK) observatory was installed, sealed at the bottom by a bridge plug and cement below 302 mbsf. In May 2014, a temperature profile was collected by lowering a probe down the hole from the ROV ROPOS. From July 2016 through May 2018, temperature data were collected during a nearly two-year deployment of a 24-thermistor cable installed to 268 m below seafloor (mbsf). The cable and a seismic-tilt instrument package also deployed in 2016 were connected to the Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) NEPTUNE cabled observatory in June of 2017, after which the thermistor temperatures were logged by Ocean Networks Canada at one-minute intervals until failure of the main ethernet switch in the integrated seafloor control unit in May 2018. The thermistor array had been designed with concentrated vertical spacing around the bottom-simulating reflector and two pressure-monitoring screens at 203 and 244 mbsf, with wider thermistor spacing elsewhere to document the geothermal state up to seafloor. The 4 years of data show a generally linear temperature gradient of 0.055°C/m consistent with a heat flux of 61–64 mW/m2. The data show no indications of thermal transients. A slight departure from a linear gradient provides an approximate limit of ∼10−10 m/s for any possible slow upward advection of pore fluids. In-situ temperatures are ∼15.8°C at the BSR position, consistent with methane hydrate stability at that depth and pressure.

In establishing the limits of the continental shelf, there are two aspects to the use of depth data. Shallow water depths are used to determine the low-water or drying line and hence the baseline from where the measurement of the various limits begin. Deepwater depths are used to determine the foot of continental slope and the 2500-m isobath, which in turn will help to decide where these limits should end. While the principle focus of this book is the delimitation of the outer limit of the continental shelf, some aspects of depth measurement are applicable to both shallow and deepwater measurements, and therefore, in order to provide a complete picture, all aspects will be considered in this chapter. For as long as people have ventured out to sea in boats, they have been interested in obtaining a knowledge of the depth of water and the position of underwater obstructions in order to avoid damaging and possibly losing their vessels. Information was valuable, and having been obtained by ships' captains, either by purchasing it from others or by carrying out their own surveys, it was not readily divulged to other people. It was the formation of national hydrographic offices in the 18th century that started the coordinated collection and wide dissemination of hydrographic data. The earliest methods of measuring depth involved the lowering of a weighted line over the side of the vessel until it hit the seabed or in the case of very shallow water, the use of a graduated pole. Measurements were restricted to shallow water until the latter part of the 18th century. Captain Phipps in HMS Racehorse recorded a depth of 683 fathoms in the Norwegian Sea in 1773. Measuring such depths was a very slow, weatherdependent process, but with the growing interest in the oceans, especially the desire to lay underwater telegraph cables in the second half of the 19th century, the techniques were improved. By 1855, Matthew Fountaine Maury of the U.S. Naval Observatory had accumulated sufficient depths to publish a first attempt at a contour chart of the Atlantic Ocean. In 1904, the first global set of such charts was published by GEBCO.