SEGJ Technical Conference

Vertical Cable Seismic (VCS) Survey for Seafloor Massive Sulfide exploration

Abstract The vertical cable seismic is one of the reflection seismic methods. It uses hydrophone arrays vertically moored from the seafloor to record acoustic waves generated by surface, deep-towed or ocean bottom sources. Analyzing the reflections from the sub-seabed, we could look into the subsurface structure. This type of survey is generally called VCS (Vertical Cable Seismic). Because VCS is an efficient high-resolution 3D seismic survey method for a spatially-bounded area, we proposed the method for the hydrothermal deposit survey tool development program that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) started in 2009. We have been developing a VCS system, including not only data acquisition hardware but data processing and analysis technique and then we have carried out several field surveys. In this paper, we describe our VCS system and show the results of the 3D survey in the Izena Cauldron, an active hydrothermal area in the Okinawa Trough to demonstrate that the VCS becomes a practical exploration tool for the exploration of seafloor massive sulfide.