Approach : Imaging the Sediments and Deformation

Sound waves can “see” the layers of sediments and rock beneath the sea.
Different systems can see either deeper or with more detail.

Different MCS systems with different size sources and streamers gather data to different resolutions. This is illustrated with 3 profiles collected in the same place in the eastern Marmara Sea.   Very high resolution systems only penetrate 10s of meters below the sea floor and can image details as fine as 10s of centimeters. They are used to see the recent faulting and sediments deposited over the last 1000s of years as shown on the top right.

Low resolution, deep penetrating systems, as in the bottom panel, can image 10s of kilometers below the surface.  They can record the entire thickness of sediments in the basins and even to the bottom of the crust.  However, the level of detail of the sedimentary layers is much less.

Both very high resolution and deep penetrating seismic data have been collected in the Marmara Sea.  These have been used to map active faults near the surface and deep structures that affect the crystalline basement rocks.  Until now, what has been lacking is high resolution MCS data that provides detailed images of the sedimentary layers deposited over the last 1,000,000 years.  These layers, or strata, record the tectonic movements in the Marmara Sea with enough detail to map the relative motions of different faults and how they interact.  Collecting and interpreting this high resolution MCS data is the focus of the TAMAM project.