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Title of paper Comparing results from a new bottom-towed CSEM system against seismic and core data
List of authors Author: Roslynn King 1,2,*,
Co-author: Amy Gusick 3,
Co-author: Steve Constable 1,
Co-author: Jillian Maloney 2
Affiliation(s) 1 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
2 Department of Geological Sciences, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182
3 Department of Anthropology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA
* corresponding author – Email: rbking@ucsd.edu
Summary We will present inversions and pseudosections from a novel shallow-water bottom-towed controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) system. The new CSEM system was originally developed to detect archaeological artifacts left by Pleistocene hunter gatherers in the regions offshore the Northern Channel Islands in the Southern California Bight, USA. These targets, known as shell middens, are small, buried mounds (~3 meter wide and 20 cm thick) that are subtly less resistive than the surrounding seafloor so the system needed to be within close proximity to the seafloor to obtain the sensitivity and resolution necessary to detect these features. Additionally, as these targets are within culturally and biologically sensitive regions, the system needed to minimize impact on the seafloor. Therefore, our system is neutrally buoyant, flying between 1 to 2 meters above the seafloor, with a small counterweight to minimize contact with the seafloor. From our preliminary results, the new CSEM system is able to resolve the porosity of the shallow sub-seafloor (<50 meters) with good agreement with seismic and core data. The ability to constrain the porosity of the shallow sub-seafloor can be of use for a number of other marine research and infrastructure programs.
Session Keyword 5.0 Marine EM
File upload 5.0_comparing_results_from_a_king.pdf
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