Seabed Online

Maps and images of seabed habitat, geology and biological data in the seas around North-West Europe can now be viewed online. This resource has been created by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, in a five nation project called, The Development of a Framework for Mapping European Seabed Habitats, or MESH. Important to the project was discovering more about the processes that determine the existence of certain habitats in a particular location. These habitats are defined by a combination of unique conditions such as current, depth of water, temperature and the rock structure under the seafloor. Understanding and classifying this... (read more)

2008-01-10 09:02:14

Seabed Mapping Solutions

IXSEA launched its new seabed mapping brochure at Ocean Business 09 in Southampton today, which includes the new ECHOES 1500 Deep Tow sub-bottom profiler. "The launch of ECHOES 1500 Deep Tow at Ocean Business, a step change in sub-bottom profiler technology, demonstrates the diversity of the IXSEA product range," said IXSEA's Offshore Director Richard Parkinson. "DELPH is a powerful suite of real-time data acquisition and fully integrated processing and interpretation tools. While SHADOWS, the fourth generation side scan sonar, provides ‘more pixels per hour'." (read more)

2009-04-01 12:18:50

Party Time for Seabed

Dutch supplier for the hydrographic, dredging and offshore industry, Seabed, celebrated on 1 April their first five years in business. During these five years Seabed has grown from three up to fifteen professionals and from 20 to about 40 different products and solutions. On their stand, they hosted a party that was well attended. Seabed specialises in technical services aimed at the development and implementation of both hardware and software. Besides a highly qualified staff, the company offers a wide range of high-quality instruments. Seabed offers a large range of GPS equipment and utilities as well as a broad... (read more)

2009-04-02 12:44:55

Seabed Soil Testing System

Schilling Robotics, and Gregg Drilling and Testing have delivered a new Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) system for deep-water seabed soil testing. Gregg is commencing in-water testing of the system today in Long Beach Harbor (CA, USA). Once harbor testing is complete, the system will then be sent to work offshore in June 2009. Schilling supplied the control system and hydraulics for the Gregg-designed CPT system. The control system consists of electrical and communications components, subsea hydraulics, along with topside hardware, console components, and advanced component monitoring and diagnostic software. Gregg's CPT is performed using a cylindrical penetrometer with... (read more)

2009-04-21 04:31:50

Seabed Sampling Investigation System

In 2008, GC Rieber Shipping took a 40% strategic stake on a geotechnical survey company - Bluestone Offshore. From start-up to operational, the team based in Singapore has come a long way in the past two years between purchasing their first vessel, initiating the retrofitting work with ST Marine early November and hiring key staff with extensive experience in Health & Safety, drilling, geotechnical and laboratory analysis. The conversion work is upgrading the Bluestone Topaz into a dedicated DP geotechnical vessel and is focused on three main areas: shift the moon pool to the center of the vessel,... (read more)

2008-12-19 12:00:00

Seabed in Motion

How ripples and waves determine sand-grain movement

Despite its great practical importance, we still have much to learn about the transport of sand grains in the coastal environment. This mainly due to the complexity of sand transportation processes influenced by both waves and net currents like the tide. Here an overview of recently completed PhD research that yielded new insights into, and predictive models for, wave-induced sand transport over rippled beds. Coastal regions and shallow shelf seas like the North Sea are increasingly subjected to human activity. Cities, harbours and industry are situated near the coastline, and farther offshore the seabed is used for the construction of... (read more)

2008-01-01 01:00:00

Autonomous Seabed Transponder Calibration

ASV’s C-Worker 6 successfully carried out a seabed transponder calibration in 1,300m-deep waters. The sea trials, which took place in the Gulf of Mexico, were conducted in rough conditions with 2.5m waves. ASV technical sales manager Brian Anderson said that this unmanned capability could save the oil and gas industry millions of dollars. The ability to conduct precise subsea positioning in challenging conditions broadens the possible applications for C-Worker. C-Worker is the world’s first unmanned oil and gas workboat. ASV designed and built the 6m vehicle at its waterside facility in Portchester, UK. ASV has completed the build of a... (read more)

2014-06-04 09:19:10

Acoustic Seabed Classification

Integration into hydrographic survey programmes

Acoustic seabed classification is rapidly gaining acceptance as a useful tool amongst the world's ocean community. Commercial classification products can measure acoustic diversity in the surficial seafloor zone and produce thematic maps of the resulting acoustic classes. Hydrographic services throughout the world routinely conduct bathymetric surveys using single beam sounders and multibeam sonar. These operations are ideal candidates to serve as 'surveys of opportunity' for acquisition of acoustic classification information. The hydrographic office itself gains significantly better seafloor information for charting purposes, with the added benefit that the ocean community outside hydrography gains a new capability to manage the delicate... (read more)

2008-01-01 01:00:00

Klaipeda Harbour Seabed Mapped

The Lithuanian Coastal Research and Planning Institute (CORPI) has recently completed the first ever 100% coverage survey of Klaipeda Harbour, Lithuania, using the Kongsberg GeoAcoustics GeoSwath Plus COMPACT system. This EU-funded project was carried out during the implementation of the Sustainable Management of Contaminated Sediments (SMOCS) project, developed under the framework of the Baltic Sea Region Programme 2007-2013. The work focuses on the mapping of contaminated sediments in the modern port development area. Full-scale, shallow water multibeam, sidescan sea floor imagery and seismic mapping were carried out by CORPI's staff in order to gain a full understanding of the morphology... (read more)

2013-08-19 11:20:47

Seabed Resources and Hydrography

Exploration of seabed resources using bathymetry and geology

The seabed of the Dutch sector of the North Sea is one of most densely sampled marine areas in the world. Sampling started in the mid-1960s with the exploration of fill sand in the coastal zone. Since that time, a reconnaissance mapping programme of the entire territory has been carried out in close co-operation with the North Sea Directorate of the Dutch Ministry of Public Works and Water Management, and the Hydrographic Office (HO) of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The sample spacing varies much from north to south and from east to west, reflecting the differing relevance of various areas... (read more)

2008-01-01 01:00:00