By Ronald Koomans and Serena Lyon, contributing editors, Hydro International

The deep sea seismic survey systems presented here are mainly used for high-resolution geophysical surveys for site investigation, exploration for oil and gas and for valuable minerals. In this product survey, we asked the manufacturers for systems that can be used for deep sea seismic surveys at an operating range >500m.

Several distinguishing characteristics of the systems are described here. All systems can store the collected acoustic data in the international SEG-Y standard. An advantage of this is that the survey data can be analysed and used by third-party software. Applied Acoustics uses CodaOctopus systems for data recording which can record in SEG-Y as well as XTF and CODA formats. According to the data provided by the suppliers, SIG does not have its own data processing system, which means the software used should be sourced from third parties. Applied Acoustics, EdgeTech and Knudsen Engineering supply all-round systems that can be used with third-party software.

Some manufacturers have given us descriptions of several seismic survey systems, providing a range of systems. Please feel free to send us any comments or suggestions you may have to help us improve this Product Survey. Your opinion is important to us. The complete overview of these systems can be found on our website, where you also have the opportunity to share your opinion on the individual products. Our website also contains information on seismic survey systems used for shallow-water applications , published in October 2009.