CV16001 Rockall OBS (Broad Band Ocean Bottom Seismographs) Network Deployment Survey

This survey, led by Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), took place in January 2016 on board the Marine Institute's R.V. Celtic Voyager off the North West coast of Ireland. The aim of the survey was to deploy 10 Broad Band Ocean Bottom Seismographs (OBSs) units across the shelf offshore Donegal and out into the Rockall Trough in order to study microseims. Compared to earthquakes, microseisms represent background seismic noise generated by ocean wave pressure fluctuations on the sea floor which generate low frequency seismic waves. The OBS stations will record around 8 months worth of seismic data at the sea floor and will be recovered in August 2016. The main goal of the survey is to investigate the generation mechanism as well as spatial and temporal distributions of dominant microseism source regions. Each OBS unit also includes an acoustic sensor (hydrophone) which will be used to study the coupling of seismic and acoustic signals at the sea bed and its evolution in both the deep water and shelf areas. The OBS network is the first ever attempt to closely monitor local offshore earthquakes. The aim of the survey was to deploy 10 Broad Band Ocean Bottom Seismographs (OBSs) units to investigate the generation mechanism as well as spatial and temporal distributions of dominant microseism source regions.