Collaboration on Offshore Seismic Research Project at San Onofre

Southern California Edison (SCE) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego will collaborate on a project to gather seismic data off the coast of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The work, part of SCE's seismic research projects for SONGS Units 2 and 3, will involve state-of-the art data-gathering and analysis technologies and will begin later this year and continue through 2013. Scripps scientists will lead the project, which will include collecting and processing data from 2-D and 3-D multichannel seismic reflection and refraction off San Onofre State Beach. The raw and processed survey data will be open-source and available to other experts to view and use in further studies. This data will also be made available to the general public. Offshore seismic research is conducted with specially equipped boats that tow cables, or streamers, with underwater microphones at regular intervals. Two-dimensional seismic surveys usually have one streamer; three-dimensional surveys have four or more.