The Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Center (OBSIC) facility website is now up and running at obsic.whoi.edu. All instrument requests are to be submitted through the OBSIC website as of February 5th, 2019. ( more

As of 2/1/2019, the OBSIPtec mailing list has been transferred to the OBSIC facility and will continue to be used for the OBS community. ( more

The Symmetricom Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC) has been tested and integrated with instruments at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to improve the long term timing performance of ocean bottom seismographs.

A video by Ernie Aaron of Scripps Institute of Oceanography shows the experience of an ocean bottom seismometer from deployment to recovery during the 2014-2015 ENAM community seismic experiment.

A study recently published in Nature uses OBS data from the 2011-2013 NoMelt experiment in the Pacific to show that large-scale plate motion may not be the greatest driver of deformation in the oceanic mantle. Click for more information about the NoMelt experiment. (Photo: Jim Gaherty)

During this year-long deployment the Lamont-Doherty shielded instruments recorded a shallow slow-slip event that occurred offshore New Zealand in 2015. Click for a link to the Smithsonian article as well as more information on the HOBITSS experiment.

Data from the Cascadia Initiative experiment was used in a study published in Science that imaged the subduction zone offshore Washington and Oregon. Click for links to the article and more information about the five-year deployment. (Photo: Erik Fredrickson)

Read about the participants via their cruise blog as they deployed and recovered 51 Scripps ocean bottom seismometers. Click for links and information about this active-source experiment led by PI Dr. Anne Tréhu from Oregon State University.

The experiment will include ten stations deployed to the bottom of Yellowstone Lake in summer of 2017. Instruments will record microearthquakes as well as signals from the gases released at hydrothermal vents. (Photo: Rob Sohn)

The 2017 OBS Symposium was held September 18-19 in Portland, Maine. The agenda included a diverse array of science speakers, a poster session, as well as two forums on future technologies, open-source software, and community thoughts on OBS facilities.

The 2017 OBS Symposium gathered around 120 attendees for a two-day program to highlight the research made possible by current OBS technology and to discuss what lies ahead. Presentations are now available on the symposium website.

An array of 30 OBS will collect data on the remote Pacific seafloor to image shallow mantle convection and fill in gaps of coverage for global tomography. Click to follow the progress of the crew aboard the R/V Kilo Moana. (Photo: Zach Eilon)

Two cruises on board the R/V Sikuliaq deployed 75 ocean-bottom seismometers offshore Alaska to record for up to 15 months beginning in the summer of 2018. Click for more information about this community seismic experiment. (Photo: Eric Piper)

A recently published article in Nature presents results from the 2012 experiment deployed around the Mariana Trench. Using OBS data, this study shows that the subducted plate is far more hydrated than previously estimated. (Photo: Doug Wiens)

The Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Pool (OBSIP)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced that the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will operate a new center to provide seafloor seismographs and technical support to the U.S. academic community beginning in August 1, 2018. The new Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Center (OBSIC) will be housed at WHOI under a 5-year cooperative agreement. The OBSIC replaces the Ocean Bottom Seismograph Instrument Pool. This OBSIP website is no longer updated and will be removed in July 2019.

Highlights