GeoChirp 3D Sub-bottom Profiler Delivered to China

UK-based Kongsberg GeoActoustics has delivered a GeoChirp 3D high resolution sub-bottom profiler to China. The First Institute of Oceanography (FIO), in Qingdao, is its first commercial customer. China’s internationally reputed research institution is looking forward to applying the technology in its line of research. The product provides three-dimensional acoustical images of shallow sub-seabed structures and buried objects. It transfers the principles of conventional 3D reflection seismics, used in hydrocarbon exploration, to high--resolution chirp sub-bottom profiler technology.

It has been used in a wide variety of applications, including marine archaeology, imaging buried wrecks in the UK; marine geology, researching landslide mechanisms in Norwegian Fjords; and locating buried objects in UXO (unexploded ordnance) surveys. The system has been originally developed at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK, with support from Kongsberg GeoAcoustics, who now have made this technology available in the commercial market.

Image:A buried object consisting of a small metal plate attached to a wooden pole as imaged by the 3D high-resolution sub-bottom profiler.