California: Gulf of Santa Catalina seismic surveys set

Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Southern California Edison will shoot a seismic survey later this year and in 2013 in the Gulf of Santa Catalina portion of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the presently idle San Onofre nuclear generating station between Oceanside and San Clemente, Calif.

Scripps scientists will lead the project, which will involve acquiring and processing state-of-the-art 2D and 3D multichannel seismic reflection and refraction surveys. Raw and processed survey data will be open-source and available to other experts and the public to view and use in further studies.

Besides evaluating the existing and potential faults in the area, the surveys will image the offshore structures at unprecedented resolution and will allow scientists to test alternative hypotheses for the tectonic deformation observed off San Onofre. In addition, the geophysical surveys will reveal vertical motions of the crust through time, associated with margin reorganization.