New marine seismic survey techniques for seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) exploration

Within the EEZ of Japan, numerous surveys exploring ocean floor resources have been conducted. The exploration targets have been gas hydrates, mineral resources (manganese cobalt rich crust or rare earth) and especially seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits. These resources exist in shallow subsurface areas in deep waters (>1000m). For seismic explorations very high resolution images are required but these cannot be effectively achieved by the conventional marine seismic techniques.