The present disclosure is directed to a helical conveyor for underwater seismic exploration. The system can include a case having a cylindrical portion. A cap is positioned adjacent to a first end of the case. A conveyor having a helix structure is provided within the case. The conveyor can receive an ocean bottom seismometer (“OBS”) unit at a first end of the conveyer and transport the OBS unit via the helix structure to a second end of the conveyor to provide the OBS unit on the seabed to acquire the seismic data.

The present disclosure is directed to loading a helical conveyor for underwater seismic exploration. The system includes a case and a first conveyor having a helix structure provided within the case to support one or more ocean bottom seismometer (“OBS”) units. The case can include a first opening at a first end of the first conveyor and a second opening at a second end of the first conveyor. The system can include a base to receive at least a portion of the case. The system can include a second conveyor positioned external to the case that can move an OBS unit into the first opening at the first end of the first conveyor. The first conveyor can receive the OBS unit and direct the OBS unit towards the second opening at the second end of the first conveyor.

The present disclosure is directed to a helical conveyor for underwater seismic exploration. The system can include a case having a cylindrical portion. A cap is positioned adjacent to a first end of the case. A conveyor having a helix structure is provided within the case. The conveyor can receive an ocean bottom seismometer (“OBS”) unit at a first end of the conveyer and transport the OBS unit via the helix structure to a second end of the conveyor to provide the OBS unit on the seabed to acquire the seismic data. The system can include a propulsion system to receive an instruction and, responsive to the instruction, facilitate movement of the case.

The present disclosure is directed to a skid structure for underwater seismic exploration. The system can include an underwater vehicle comprising a skid structure. A conveyor is provided in the skid structure. The conveyor includes a first end and a second end opposite the first end. A capture appliance is provided at the first end of the conveyor. The capture appliance includes an arm to close to hold a case storing one or more ocean bottom seismometer (“OBS”) units, and to open to release the case. The capture appliance includes an alignment mechanism to align an opening of the case with the first end of the conveyor. A deployment appliance can be at the second end of the conveyor. The deployment appliance can place an OBS unit of the one or more OBS units onto the seabed to acquire seismic data from the seabed.

The present disclosure is directed to underwater seismic exploration with a helical conveyor and skid structure. The system can include an underwater vehicle comprising a sensor to identify a case having a hydrodynamic shape, wherein the case stores one or more ocean bottom seismometer (“OBS”) units. The underwater vehicle includes an arm. The underwater vehicle includes an actuator to position the arm in an open state above a cap of the case, or to close the arm. The underwater vehicle can move the arm to a bottom portion of the case opposite the cap. An opening of the case can be aligned with the conveyor of the underwater vehicle. The conveyor can receive, via the opening of the case, a first OBS unit of the one or more OBS units. The conveyor can move the first OBS unit to the seabed to acquire seismic data from the seabed.

One embodiment includes receiving distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) data for responses associated with seismic excitations in an area of interest. The area of interest includes a sea surface, the water column, a seafloor, and a subseafloor. The seismic excitations are generated by at least one seismic source in the area of interest. The responses are detected by at least one fiber optic sensing apparatus configured for DAS that is in the water column, on the seafloor, in a wellbore drilled through the seafloor and into the subseafloor, or any combination thereof. The embodiment includes determining a function of speed of sound in water using the DAS data, and correcting a digital seismic image associated with the area of interest using the function of speed of sound in water to generate a corrected digital seismic image.

A method of performing a seismic survey including: deploying nodal seismic sensors at positions in a survey region; activating a plurality of seismic sources; and using the nodal seismic sensors to record seismic signals generated in response to the activation of the plurality of signals.

The invention relates to a method for seismic survey by autonomous seismic nodes (1) at a sea floor (2), comprising: —attaching the seismic nodes (1) to a rope (3); —loading the rope (3) with the seismic nodes into a node deployer (4); —lowering the node deployer (4) into the sea (5); —towing the node deployer (4) above the sea floor (2); —deploying the rope (3) with the seismic nodes (1) at the sea floor (2); —collecting seismic data by the seismic nodes (1); —retrieving the rope (3) with the seismic nodes (1) from the sea floor (2), and —unloading seismic data from the seismic nodes (1). The invention also relates to a node deployer (4) for deploying a rope (3) with seismic nodes (1) at the sea floor (2), comprising a magazine (7) for the rope (3) with the seismic nodes (1).

A marine seismic exploration method and system comprised of continuous recording, self-contained ocean bottom pods characterized by low profile casings. An external bumper is provided to promote ocean bottom coupling and prevent fishing net entrapment. Pods are tethered together with flexible, non-rigid, non-conducting cable used to control pod deployment. Pods are deployed and retrieved from a boat deck configured to have a storage system and a handling system to attach pods to cable on-the-fly. The storage system is a juke box configuration of slots wherein individual pods are randomly stored in the slots to permit data extraction, charging, testing and synchronizing without opening the pods. A pod may include an inertial navigation system to determine ocean floor location and a rubidium clock for timing. The system includes mathematical gimballing. The cable may include shear couplings designed to automatically shear apart if a certain level of cable tension is reached.

An underwater observation apparatus includes an observation apparatus body, a weight structure, a coupling device, and a fusion cutting device. The observation apparatus body is configured to house at least a power source, a communication circuit for a communication device, and a signal processing device. The coupling device couples the observation apparatus body with the weight structure via a remote-controlled release structure capable of releasing the observation apparatus body from the weight structure. The underwater observation apparatus also includes a power feeding coil located inside of a glass sphere to generate magnetic flux, and a power receiving coil located outside of the glass sphere. The power receiving coil generates an induced voltage when interlinked by the magnetic flux generated by the power feeding coil. The power receiving coil is configured to supply drive power to the fusion cutting device.