SMAPS: super-precision mapping for crustal monitoring

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) now exist for survey operations in water depths exceeding 3,000 meters, where with appropriate payloads they could provide bathymetric/geophysical surveys at decimeter resolution by running precise survey patterns very close to the seafloor. Recent advances in acoustic positioning, coupled with very careful monitoring of oceanographic conditions and use of appropriate survey patterns, will also enable us to apply existing technology to navigate the AUVs to within 10 centimeters, and thus generate bathymetric maps with 10-centimeter accuracy in deep water. The SMAPS project proposes to map nearly 500 square kilometers of seafloor to 4,500 meters water depth in the seismogenic zone east of Honshu, Japan. This area of the Nankai Trough has a record of frequent great earthquakes and is likely to experience surface crustal deformation measurable at a decimeter scale over short time scales. The SMAPS project envisions follow-on surveys to measure how the crust is responding over time to tectonic forces.