Survey Description

This campaign was carried out on board of the Italian Oceanographic Vessel Urania which carried the instruments of the Italian and Spanish teams. R/V Urania departed from Livorno, Italy on 30th October and reached the harbor of Cartagena, Spain on 2nd November, where the Spanish equipment and crew was loaded. Departure from Cartagena towards study area offshore SW Portugal was on November 3rd. After crossing the Gibraltar Strait, on the 4th November, three days were spent on testing and calibrating of the streamer, the GI guns and the acquisition systems. Taking profit of the fact that the vessel had to cross an interesting area before reaching the study area offshore SW Portugal, we performed some test lines in the Gulf of Cadiz and South Portugal, from 7th to 10th November, for a total amount of 325 km of multi-channel data profiles.

On the 10th November R/V Urania arrived in the study area and the acquisition of multi- channel seismic reflection profiles began as planned. Configuration parameters of seismic survey were changed (see Table in the Appendix) during some segments of lines to allow the acquisition of refraction data on mobile stations located onshore. The acquisition was performed according to the scheme described in the following paragraphs. The first leg ended on Nov. 25 in Portimao (South Portugal). The second leg started on Nov. 26 and ended in Naples on Dec. 9, 1998. On Dec. 4, on the way back to Naples, the ship stopped in Cartagena to unload the Spanish equipment.

Figure 2: MCS Data flow.