SEA Marine Receives Order for Bathymetric Sonar System for Marine Diamond Mining

Sea Technology, Jul 2004

SEA Marine Division (Beckington, England) recently received an order to supply SWATHplus bathymetric sonar systems to a South African mining corporation.

The Sakawe Mining Corp. of South Africa has taken delivery of a dual-frequency SEA SWATHplus ML, for use in their offshore diamond exploration activities. SWATHplus-L is ideally suited for large-area, continental shelf surveys and SWATHplus-M is more suited for coastal surveys, according to SEA.

SEA reports that both systems provide wide-bathymetry swaths with true co-registered side scan and enable very-high-definition of tell-tale seabed features. The 234-kilohertz SWATHplus-M will be used in water depths of 100 meters and has a maximum across-track resolution of 7.5 centimeters. The SWATHplus-L version (with an across-track resolution of 15 centimeters) will extend coverage to out past the 200-meter contour.

"We have evaluated many swath bathymetry systems for this work and found that the SWATHplus consistently provides the best combination of good topographic definition, together with a wide swath range. This enables us to get 100 percent swath coverage of an area without having to do detailed survey line spacing, which in turn saves us time and money."

According to SEA, SWATHplus users will find that data acquisition is much less labor-intensive. The extensive dynamic range of the sonar electronics enables the system to run all day on just the one power setting, with greater sea topography and detail displayed. SEA reports that new intelligent filters make the system far easier to learn and operate. In post-processing, 3D point cloud displays enable users to define vertical and mid-water targets while new statistical analysis tools give greater data confidence.

For more information, visit www.sea.co.uk.