Seafloor Geodesy Using Sidescan Sonar: Analysis of the NGDC Archive

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The main objective of the project is to develop a method to use existing multibeam sonars, available on NSF-sponsored research vessels, to measure small displacements of the seafloor associated with rapid events such as earthquakes and landslides. The seafloor displacements are measured by comparing the location of a patch of seafloor surveyed at two times spanning an event. The published accuracy of this approach is currently tens of meters which severely limits the utility of the method. The planned work would greatly improve the accuracy to better than 1 m by collecting data at a slow ship speed and navigating the repeat track to closely follow the reference track. This order of magnitude improvement in displacement accuracy would provide a valuable tool for assessing and understanding large and sometimes-destructive seafloor events. Broader impacts include improvements to the system software that will be freely available to others. Funding includes the training of a graduate student in the methods of high-resolution sonar and seafloor geodesy.The project will develop a method to use existing multibeam sonars, available on NSF-sponsored research vessels, to measure small displacements of the seafloor associated with rapid events such as earthquakes and landslides. The seafloor displacements are measured by differencing the location of a patch of seafloor surveyed at two times spanning an event. The published accuracy of this approach is currently tens of meters which severely limits the utility of the method. This work would greatly improve the accuracy to better than 1 m by collecting data at a slow ship speed and navigating the repeat track to closely follow the reference track. This order of magnitude improvement in displacement accuracy would provide a valuable tool for assessing and understanding large and sometimes-destructive seafloor events. The proposal addresses one of the eight high-level science questions posed in the recent National Research Cpuncil Decadal Report (NRC, 2015), i.e., how can risk be better characterized and the ability to forecast geohazards like mega-earthquakes, tsunamis, undersea landslides, and volcanic eruptions be improved? The tools of GPS and InSAR are used to monitor the crustal deformation onshore of the Cascadia Subduction Zone but most of the locked part of the megathrust interface lies offshore. While the PI?s method does not have sufficient accuracy to monitor interseismic motions, it can serve as a pre-event survey of the surface trace similar to the San Andreas Fault B-4 lidar survey.