Marine Geophysics probes how the earth works deep below its oceans and interacts with them. This theme is concerned with the application of gravity, magnetic, heat flow, and general seismic methods and imaging techniques to study the structure of the earth beneath the oceans across a broad range of scales and resolution wavelengths. It is intimately associated with the concepts and problems of seafloor spreading, continental drift, and plate tectonics, which are in turn are tied to sedimentary basin-scale problems and resource exploration. A specific research aim is to understand the processes that forged the development of the North Atlantic lithosphere west of and including Ireland. In a more global context, relationships to the continental margins and sedimentary basins of North America are also investigated. This aspect is crucial in understanding the generation and accumulation of hydrocarbon reserves on both the Irish and Canadian continental margins. The research also relates to the history of ocean circulation patterns and climate change, which is preserved in sediments across the North Atlantic, interactions between the Earths hydrosphere and lithosphere and between geological and biological systems. It contributes to enabling the sustainable use of seafloor resources into the future.
Ongoing research in marine geophysics comprise the following:
Insitu Marine Laboratory for Geosystems Research (iMARL)
iMARL the “Insitu Marine Laboratory for Geosystems Research” is a network of various types of ocean floor located sensors, hosted by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). It comprises broadband Ocean Bottom Seismographs (OBS), broadband acoustic sensors, and sensors for measuring absolute water pressure & temperature at the ocean floor. A system capable of detecting tsunamis also forms part of the infrastructure. The sensor pool is largely mobile and can, in principle, be deployed around the world. However the current focus is on the NE Atlantic, offshore Ireland. One instrument will be fixed and will ultimately become a real-time sensing offshore element of the Irish National Seismic Network (www.insn.ie)
Strapped to sea-bed landers and deployed on the sea floor iMARL will allow for the detection of offshore earthquakes and offshore storms, as well as noise in the ocean and biologically generated acoustic signals (e.g. from cetaceans). Impacts from this equipment will include: natural resources quantification, natural hazard estimation, environmental and baseline climate related insitu ocean monitoring and the monitoring of marine noise pollution.
Through an award to the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) the iMARL infrastructure is funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) with support from the Geological Survey, Ireland.
Microseism generation in the North-East Atlantic
In January 2016, 10 Broad Band Ocean Bottom Seismographs (OBSs) units were deployed across the shelf offshore Donegal and out into the Rockall Trough. The main goal of the survey is to investigate the generation mechanism as well as spatial and temporal distributions of dominant microseism source regions in NE Atlantic. Compared to earthquakes, microseisms represent background seismic noise generated by ocean wave pressure fluctuations on the sea floor which produce low frequency seismic waves. For more details on this project click here (insert link).
Location map of the OBS stations and seafloor bathymetry.
Integrated geophysical and geological study of the Porcupine Basin
DIAS Geophysics continues its research on the Porcupine Basin by integrating wide-angle seismic data, ocean bottom seismometer data along with terrestrial based seismic stations to quantify variations in crustal geometry and seismic properties (for inferring petrological affinity of the rocks) along the basin axis and towards mainland Ireland with the aim of better understanding its geological evolution. For more information on this research click here (insert link)
Bathymetry map of the Porcupine Basin depicting the location of WAS lines of the project (red lines), as well as the location of ocean bottom seismometers (yellow circles) and land stations (red triangles) used to record the data.
Ocean and Tidal Modelling
Oceans play an important role in the Earth system. At DIAS Geophysics, ongoing research focuses on wind and buoyancy driven circulations as well as tidally driven circulations within our oceans. Collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) Swarm satellite mission is investigating the magnetic signatures of the ocean circulation systems. The motivation is that the ocean-induced magnetic field may provide a greater understanding of ocean circulations. For more information about these research areas click here. (insert link)
A snapshot of the ocean surface elevations (in metres) generated by the tidal force.
WAVEOBS
Ocean waves generate continuous low amplitude seismic signals, known as microseisms, that are recorded on seismometers globally. The WAVEOBS project was established with three primary goals; to get a better fundamental understanding of microseism sources; to investigate the use of ocean generated microseisms (OGM) as real time ocean wave height data; and to investigate their use as a climate proxy. Seismic arrays established in Ireland under the WAVEOBS project allow the monitoring and mapping of local microseism generation areas near Ireland. For more information on this project click here. (insert link)
Source locations of microseisms off the west coast of Ireland
Congrats to @StKiliansDS team Roan Batard, Ethan McQuaid & Marilou Gerbelot-Barillon on winning the Group 2nd place in Physical, Chemical & Mathematical Sci at @BTYSTE lfor their project: 'What makes Dublin shake?' @dias_geophysics were delighted to support you with your project! twitter.com/NBourgeois_Pro…
With support from the @GeolSurvIE , €1.5m is being invested to expand and upgrade the Irish National Seismic Network (insn.ie) New funding will result in more stations, greater coverage & more accurate recording of earthquakes in Ireland. tinyurl.com/yb6ho2cp
A seismometer has just been deployed on the surface of Mars! " This was the first time a science instrument had ever been placed onto the surface of another planet" For more info tinyurl.com/y7amv9qo
Our own Prof. Sergei Lebedev has been listed as one of the top 100 scientists making the world a better place!
For more info' on his project check out sea-seis.ie and also Prof. Chris Bean's imarl.ie#deepoceanlisteningtinyurl.com/ybd2hgo8
Dr. Duygu Kiyan recently presented her work at the AGU Meeting in Washington, USA. Along with her colleagues, she is imaging Ireland's lithosphere using legacy and newly acquired magnetotelluric data across Ireland. @iCRAGcentre@DIAS_Dublin@GeolSurvIE@tcdastro
"Forecasting the Unpredictable: Earthquake science in a crowded world" by Prof. John McCloskey is DIAS's 2018 Statutory Public Lecture of the School of Cosmic Physics. Schrodinger Theatre, School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Wednesday Dec 12th at 18:30. Admission is free!
The field season of the DIAS led HERSK project started last week when Icelandic Met Office engineers transported seismic gear with skidoos onto Hekla volcano. The HEkla Real-time Seimic networK project
is funded by the GSI shortcall program and led by Martin Möllhoff at DIAS.
This inflation has critically stressed the rocks in the volcano, such that small local earthquakes are being triggered by the tiny ground shaking from large distant earthquakes in the surrounding Pacific ‘ring of fire’.
Recent ascent of magma to shallow levels in the volcano has caused more than one metre of uplift of the volcano’s surface and thousands of small earthquakes.
The fundamental aim of this international collaboration is to improve our understanding of how earthquakes can trigger one another by studying the seismicity at Sierra Negra.
Geophysicists from DIAS have recently assisted the University of Edinburgh & the Instituto Geofisico at the Escuela Politecnica Nacional (IGEPN), deploy a network of seismometers at Sierra Negra, a large basaltic volcano in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
#DIASDublin welcomed Mr. Yukiya Amano, DG of the International Atomic Energy Agency @iaeaorg today where, as a guest of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, he gave a keynote address on "IAEA: Atoms for Peace and Development". Retweeted by
DIAS Geophysics
Marine Geophysics
Marine Geophysics probes how the earth works deep below its oceans and interacts with them. This theme is concerned with the application of gravity, magnetic, heat flow, and general seismic methods and imaging techniques to study the structure of the earth beneath the oceans across a broad range of scales and resolution wavelengths. It is intimately associated with the concepts and problems of seafloor spreading, continental drift, and plate tectonics, which are in turn are tied to sedimentary basin-scale problems and resource exploration. A specific research aim is to understand the processes that forged the development of the North Atlantic lithosphere west of and including Ireland. In a more global context, relationships to the continental margins and sedimentary basins of North America are also investigated. This aspect is crucial in understanding the generation and accumulation of hydrocarbon reserves on both the Irish and Canadian continental margins. The research also relates to the history of ocean circulation patterns and climate change, which is preserved in sediments across the North Atlantic, interactions between the Earths hydrosphere and lithosphere and between geological and biological systems. It contributes to enabling the sustainable use of seafloor resources into the future.
Ongoing research in marine geophysics comprise the following:
Insitu Marine Laboratory for Geosystems Research (iMARL)
iMARL the “Insitu Marine Laboratory for Geosystems Research” is a network of various types of ocean floor located sensors, hosted by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). It comprises broadband Ocean Bottom Seismographs (OBS), broadband acoustic sensors, and sensors for measuring absolute water pressure & temperature at the ocean floor. A system capable of detecting tsunamis also forms part of the infrastructure. The sensor pool is largely mobile and can, in principle, be deployed around the world. However the current focus is on the NE Atlantic, offshore Ireland. One instrument will be fixed and will ultimately become a real-time sensing offshore element of the Irish National Seismic Network (www.insn.ie)
Strapped to sea-bed landers and deployed on the sea floor iMARL will allow for the detection of offshore earthquakes and offshore storms, as well as noise in the ocean and biologically generated acoustic signals (e.g. from cetaceans). Impacts from this equipment will include: natural resources quantification, natural hazard estimation, environmental and baseline climate related insitu ocean monitoring and the monitoring of marine noise pollution.
Through an award to the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) the iMARL infrastructure is funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) with support from the Geological Survey, Ireland.
Microseism generation in the North-East Atlantic
In January 2016, 10 Broad Band Ocean Bottom Seismographs (OBSs) units were deployed across the shelf offshore Donegal and out into the Rockall Trough. The main goal of the survey is to investigate the generation mechanism as well as spatial and temporal distributions of dominant microseism source regions in NE Atlantic. Compared to earthquakes, microseisms represent background seismic noise generated by ocean wave pressure fluctuations on the sea floor which produce low frequency seismic waves. For more details on this project click here (insert link).
Location map of the OBS stations and seafloor bathymetry.
Integrated geophysical and geological study of the Porcupine Basin
DIAS Geophysics continues its research on the Porcupine Basin by integrating wide-angle seismic data, ocean bottom seismometer data along with terrestrial based seismic stations to quantify variations in crustal geometry and seismic properties (for inferring petrological affinity of the rocks) along the basin axis and towards mainland Ireland with the aim of better understanding its geological evolution. For more information on this research click here (insert link)
Bathymetry map of the Porcupine Basin depicting the location of WAS lines of the project (red lines), as well as the location of ocean bottom seismometers (yellow circles) and land stations (red triangles) used to record the data.
Ocean and Tidal Modelling
Oceans play an important role in the Earth system. At DIAS Geophysics, ongoing research focuses on wind and buoyancy driven circulations as well as tidally driven circulations within our oceans. Collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) Swarm satellite mission is investigating the magnetic signatures of the ocean circulation systems. The motivation is that the ocean-induced magnetic field may provide a greater understanding of ocean circulations. For more information about these research areas click here. (insert link)
A snapshot of the ocean surface elevations (in metres) generated by the tidal force.
WAVEOBS
Ocean waves generate continuous low amplitude seismic signals, known as microseisms, that are recorded on seismometers globally. The WAVEOBS project was established with three primary goals; to get a better fundamental understanding of microseism sources; to investigate the use of ocean generated microseisms (OGM) as real time ocean wave height data; and to investigate their use as a climate proxy. Seismic arrays established in Ireland under the WAVEOBS project allow the monitoring and mapping of local microseism generation areas near Ireland. For more information on this project click here. (insert link)
Source locations of microseisms off the west coast of Ireland
Geophysics
Congrats to @StKiliansDS team Roan Batard, Ethan McQuaid & Marilou Gerbelot-Barillon on winning the Group 2nd place in Physical, Chemical & Mathematical Sci at @BTYSTE lfor their project: 'What makes Dublin shake?' @dias_geophysics were delighted to support you with your project! twitter.com/NBourgeois_Pro…
With support from the @GeolSurvIE , €1.5m is being invested to expand and upgrade the Irish National Seismic Network (insn.ie) New funding will result in more stations, greater coverage & more accurate recording of earthquakes in Ireland. tinyurl.com/yb6ho2cp
A seismometer has just been deployed on the surface of Mars! " This was the first time a science instrument had ever been placed onto the surface of another planet" For more info tinyurl.com/y7amv9qo
Our own Prof. Sergei Lebedev has been listed as one of the top 100 scientists making the world a better place! For more info' on his project check out sea-seis.ie and also Prof. Chris Bean's imarl.ie #deepoceanlistening tinyurl.com/ybd2hgo8
Dr. Duygu Kiyan recently presented her work at the AGU Meeting in Washington, USA. Along with her colleagues, she is imaging Ireland's lithosphere using legacy and newly acquired magnetotelluric data across Ireland. @iCRAGcentre @DIAS_Dublin @GeolSurvIE @tcdastro
Our visiting guest, Professor John McCloskey @EdinburghUni spoke to @NewstalkFM @SeanMoncrieff this afternoon about the unpredictability of volcanoes! Don’t miss his talk tonight - 6.30pm @TCD_physics, organised by @dias_geophysics. Full details: bit.ly/2AqmORP
"Forecasting the Unpredictable: Earthquake science in a crowded world" by Prof. John McCloskey is DIAS's 2018 Statutory Public Lecture of the School of Cosmic Physics. Schrodinger Theatre, School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Wednesday Dec 12th at 18:30. Admission is free!
To know more about the marine geophysics research conducted here in @dias_geophysics check out imarl.ie for #deepoceanlistening and also Sergei's project sea-seis.ie on the deployment of seismometers in the North Atlantic this summer. @10Things_ToKnow
Prof. Chris Bean and Dr Sergei Lebedev from @dias_geophysics @DIAS_Dublin join @jonathan_mccrea to look at Irish seabed research - 8.30pm @RTEOne - @GeolSurvIE tonight on @10Things_ToKnow
The field season of the DIAS led HERSK project started last week when Icelandic Met Office engineers transported seismic gear with skidoos onto Hekla volcano. The HEkla Real-time Seimic networK project is funded by the GSI shortcall program and led by Martin Möllhoff at DIAS.
The DIAS geophysics team along with their colleagues successfully deployed the seismic network in this unique, natural laboratory in the Galapagos.
This inflation has critically stressed the rocks in the volcano, such that small local earthquakes are being triggered by the tiny ground shaking from large distant earthquakes in the surrounding Pacific ‘ring of fire’.
Recent ascent of magma to shallow levels in the volcano has caused more than one metre of uplift of the volcano’s surface and thousands of small earthquakes.
The fundamental aim of this international collaboration is to improve our understanding of how earthquakes can trigger one another by studying the seismicity at Sierra Negra.
Geophysicists from DIAS have recently assisted the University of Edinburgh & the Instituto Geofisico at the Escuela Politecnica Nacional (IGEPN), deploy a network of seismometers at Sierra Negra, a large basaltic volcano in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
#DIASDublin welcomed Mr. Yukiya Amano, DG of the International Atomic Energy Agency @iaeaorg today where, as a guest of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, he gave a keynote address on "IAEA: Atoms for Peace and Development". Retweeted by DIAS Geophysics
Prof. Chris Bean describing the new Ocean Bottom Seismometers at the iMARL launch to @k_verbruggen of @GeolSurvIE @SeanKyneTD and Mark Ferguson of @scienceirel
DIAS took delivery of 18 ocean bottom seismometers this morning as part of the iMARL project funded by @scienceirel and support from @GeolSurvIE #deepoceanlistening
The seismic event in Wales this afternoon was recorded on our national seismic network. @GeolSurvIE insn.ie/2018-02-17-m4-…
Tonight!!! Learn about the past & present of live earthquake monitoring @dias_geophysics #ScienceWeek bit.ly/2hzGU3z