Development of seafloor displacement monitoring system using a 3-component servo-accelerometer

In order to monitor the seafloor stability during methane hydrate productions, a monitoring system continuously measuring seafloor displacement will be required. We have been developing a system that mainly consists of a 3-component servo- accelerometer and gimbaled mechanism in a pressure chamber. The observed acceleration waveform data are used to calculate displacements by double integrals after noise reduction. After the development and evaluation of the initial experimental model system, we have been developing and testing a prototype system. As the results of those tests, we confirmed that the monitoring by servo-accelerometer is practical.