Recent developments of marine geophysical exploration capabilities in Taiwan

The marine geophysical investigation capabilities in navigation, acoustic and seismic works in Taiwan has been expanded rapidly in recent years. Through the incorporation of digital data acquisition and processing techniques in side-scan sonar imaging, 3.5 KHz echo sounding and high resolution seismic reflection profiling, the sea floor investigation ability has gained flexibility and improvement in quality to a large extent. The newly deployed 60-channel seismic reflection system provides a powerful tool in exploring the upper crustal structures, and the ocean bottom seismograph (OBS) system which is under development will provide the capability to investigate the continental margin and its surroundings on a crustal scale in the near future. -from Author