Very high resolution seismic profiling at the Brazil Margin

Abstract

Acoustically stratified seismic images are widely used in studies of sedimentation mechanisms producing thick sedimentary aprons on continental rises. However, insuffcient vertical resolution of seismic records commonly restricts a more detailed interpretation of individual reflectors within accumulations to reconstruct specifc short-term sedimentological events. (Reflectors correspond to boundaries between sedimentary layers with different acoustic properties and are imaged in seismic records as continuous lines.) Very high resolution (VHR) seismic profiling conducted during Cruise 33 of the Russian research vessel Akademik Ioffe (2011) provided correlation of acoustic reflectors, distanced from one another by less than 50 centimeters, with thin sedimentary layers recovered by gravity cores. © 2012 American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.