OTC 14143

An Introduction to Marine Electrical Methods: Towed Resistivity & Towed Induced

Polarization Applied to Marine Geotechnical Problems
Richard F. Graham Williamson & Associates, Inc.

Copyright 2002, Offshore Technology Conference

The C-BASS weighs approximately 1ton and when compared
This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2002 Offshore Technology Conference held in to ReDAS, is a more fully instrumented platform
Houston, Texas U.S.A., 6–9 May 2002.
incorporating a sub-bottom profiler, lights and a video camera,
This paper was selected for presentation by the OTC Program Committee following review of
information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as
a CTD and a mini-CPT (Cone Penetrometer). ReDAS is
presented, have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to primarily a resistivity data collection system, and is smaller
correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Offshore Technology Conference or its officers. Electronic reproduction, and lighter than the C-BASS, weighing approximately 1/2ton.
distribution, or storage of any part of this paper for commercial purposes without the written
consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print
Both are easily deployed from survey-class vessels using
is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The standard “deep-tow” oceanographic winches and A-frames.
abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was
presented. With regard to their resistivity measurement systems,
though different in detail, C-BASS and ReDAS have very
similar performance characteristics. This is due largely the
Abstract
fact that both systems were targeted at the telecommunications
The geoelectric methods of DC resistivity and induced
industry and were therefore tuned to requirements of the cable
polarization (IP) have had a long history as complementary
burial assessment (BAS) surveys.
geophysical tools with which to remotely explore the earth.
Pioneering work on both techniques dates to earliest part of
Towed Direct Current (TDC) Method.
the last century. Resistivity had gained industry acceptance
Both C-BASS and ReDAS can be considered marine Towed
well before the middle of last century; while due to its more
Direct Current systems and are treated the same for purposes
sophisticated hardware requirements, IP’s commercial
of this discussion—in the details of the systems lie
establishment lagged until the later half of the last century.
subtle differences.
The ability of marine towed resistivity systems to quickly and
Land-based towed array resistivity systems have been
effectively categorize sediments in the near subbottom has
available for some time. However, the performance of these
been commercially demonstrated in the telecommunications
land-based systems is often quite poor, with the data quality
industry. The application of DC resistivity to other
being limited due to inadequate coupling of the electrodes to
geotechnical problems is discussed. Also discussed are the
the ground. With regards to marine towed resistivity systems,
limitations of DC resistivity and the application of marine
electrode coupling is not an issue as the electrodes are
towed IP to problems where DC resistivity falls short.
surrounded by a highly conductive medium. Compared to a
stationary terrestrial survey, marine towed resistivity systems
Introduction
require more electrical current but less voltage to achieve a
Williamson & Associates has figured prominently in the
similar depth of penetration.
relatively brief history of the application of electrical methods
The in-situ measurement of the bulk electrical properties
to marine geophysical survey. First, in the early 1990’s, in
of rocks and sediments that comprise the sea floor can provide
partnership with Cable & Wireless Marine, Ltd. (now Global
a proxy measurement of the geotechnical properties of this
Marine Systems, Ltd.), Williamson & Associates launched the
material. In essence, the TDC system injects a DC electric
first commercial foray into marine resistivity with the
current into the sediment-water interface and measures
commissioning of two C-BASS (Cable Burial Assessment
variations in the electric field as this sensor array is towed
Survey System) sleds. The C-BASS program was followed by
across the seafloor. Changes in signal strength are related
a second partnership, this time with Sage Engineering, Ltd.,
primarily to changes in the sediment porosity and thus can be
(now Thales, Inc) leading to the development of two deep-
used to infer lithologic changes. Overall, the TDC system
towed ReDAS (Resistivity Data Acquisition System) systems.
is conceptually similar to the types of arrays used in
Both the C-BASS and ReDAS survey platforms are
borehole geophysical investigations—only longer and
bottom-towed sleds capable of taking continuous multi-
deployed horizontally.
electrode, resistivity measurements of the top few meters of
seafloor while working in water depths exceeding 2000m.
2 R. F. GRAHAM AND M. E. WILLIAMSON
For most geologic materials occurring in marine settings,
the bulk electrical conductivity of the material is, to the first
order, related to the material’s porosity. The strong
correlation between porosity and bulk conductivity exists due
to the high specific electrical conductivity of the pore water as
compared to specific conductivity of the sediment in the
environment near the sediment-water interface. Pore water is
assumed to be in free communication with the overlying
seawater and thus the electrical conductivity of pore water is
assumed equal to the measured seawater conductivity.
In its present configuration, the TDC system is capable of
making continuous measurements of the conductivity of the
sea floor to a nominal depth of investigation of 2.5m. The
actual depth of investigation achieved in the field is somewhat
influenced by the lithology and mineralogy occurring within
the first ~3-5m.
The TDC System The TDC system employs an inverted
Schlumberger array consisting of one pair of current
(transmitter) electrodes, located nearest the center of array,
and seven pairs of potential (receiver) electrodes
symmetrically arrange and logarithmically spaced about a 20m
length of the active portion of the array (Table 1).
Electrode Pair Half-Spacing
I
0.5m
V1 1.78m
V2 2.37m
V3 3.16m
V4 4.22m
V5 5.62m
V6 7.50m
V7 10.0m
Table 1 C-BASS electrode separations.
The TDC system employs two computers to collect and
log data. A bottom-side computer controls the output
waveform, samples and relays the data to a topside computer.
The topside computer provides the operator-system interface,
operator controls to various aspects of a bottom-side computer
and merges the TDC data from the sled to navigation data.
Data uplink and control downlink occur via one of three multi-
plexed, bi-directional channels between topside and the C-
BASS sled.
TDC Operation. During normal TDC operation, an open
current (maximum ~20amp), 24V, 0.125Hz ‘crankshaft’
waveform is generated between the current (transmitter)
electrode pair. The crankshaft wave is similar to a square
wave, but with a short ‘off’ period between each half-cycle
designed to reduce electronic ringing in the circuit. In such a
scheme, each half-cycle of the square wave approximates a
true DC signal; while the polarity reversal permits the
extraneous DC effects of electro-chemically generated
voltages, naturally occurring earth currents (telluric currents)
and other systematic DC offsets to cancel.
The resultant electric field is simultaneously sampled
across each of the 7 voltage electrode pairs 10 times during
OTC 14143
each half-cycle. Data collected during each half-cycle are
averaged and the magnitude taken. Data from two successive
half-cycles are averaged to constitute one sounding. Under
typical operating conditions, the baseline signal strength is
quite low—ranging from a high of ~300mV for the innermost
electrode pair to ~10mV for the outermost pair.
At a nominal tow speed of 1.5kt, the TDC system collects
one complete sounding approximately every 10m of horizontal
travel. Or, in other words, the data from any given sounding
represent an average value of about 10m along track.
Data Collection & Data Reduction. The TDC data set is a
flat-file database. Included in each record are fields for both
the current and voltage of the input waveform, the measured
voltages across each of the 7 pairs of voltage electrodes,
seawater conductivity, and water depth. These quantities
constitute the minimum data required for resistivity
calculation purposes. Navigation data, supplied by a suitable
survey quality navigation system, is wedded to this file. All
data are collected in real time and are stored ‘raw’ for later
post-processing.
During the initial post-processing the raw sled navigation
data are track corrected and any statistical outliers occurring
within the raw voltage data file are filtered and removed.
Further data smoothing can be applied to reduce noise.
Apparent Resistivity. Resistivity assumes the sediments
behave as a simple Ohmic resistor. From the measured raw
voltage data, the quantity of apparent resistivity (ρapp) can be
readily calculated. Apparent resistivity is defined as the
resistivity of the uniform whole space.
V
ρ app = G
I
Where: V is the voltage measured across the electrode pair, I is
the injected current and G is the geometric scaling factor of
the array. For an Schlumberger array, G can be calculated:
a 2 − b2
G =π
2b
Where: a is the distance between the two measurement
electrodes and b is the distance between the two input
electrodes.
Stripped Resistivity. The quantity of stripped resistivity
(ρstripped) assumes that two uniform half spaces exist—ρupper
above the array and ρlower below the array. Stripped resistivity
is the resistivity of the lower uniform half space of
sediments/rock. In water depths greater than ~5x the electrode
spacing, the resistivity of the upper half space is simply equal
to the resistivity of seawater. However, in shallower water,
the voltage measured at the array is influenced by the air/water
interface. The magnitude of this interaction is related to the
spacing of the measurement electrode pair and to the water
depth. Thus, in shallow water, an electrode-pair specific and
depth specific correction factor must be applied to ρupper. In
general, ρstripped (= ρlower) can be calculated:
OTC 14143 AN INTRODUCTION TO MARINE ELECTRICAL METHODS
ρ upper × ρ app
ρ stripped =
ρ upper − ρ app
Formation Factor. The quantity of formation factor, derived
from Archie’s Law [2], provides a proxy estimate of porosity.
Formation factor is simply the ratio of the resistivity of the
sediment to the resistivity of the interstitial pore water. The
pore conductivity of pore water is assumed to be equal to the
conductivity of seawater measured near the seafloor.
Formation Factor is calculated:
ρ stripped
FF =
ρ seawater
Laboratory studies by Jackson, et al.[3] conducted on both
artificial and natural sediments established the basic
relationships between formation factors and sediment porosity,
particle shape and particle size. Empirically evidence from
data collected in-situ using TDC systems have extended these
relationships (Table 2).
A key advantage to the use of formation factors is that they
are computationally quick, and once the system is calibrated
they are simple to interpret and very robust.
Formation Factor Interpreted Sediment Type
1.0 Sea Water
1.0-1.2 Clayey Oozes
1.2-2.0 Mostly Clays & Silts
2.0-3.0 Mixed Sand, Silt & Clay
3.0-4.0 Mixed Sands
4.0-5.0 Mature Sands
5.0-6.0 Gravels
>6.0 Rock
Table 2 Formation Factors and inferred sediment types.
Depth of Investigation. Theoretical considerations[4] suggest
that the depth of investigation of the TDC system in its current
configuration is 0.125x the spacing between the electrode
pairs. However, empirical studies suggest the depth of
investigation to be as deep as 0.300x the electrode spacing[5].
Given these relationships, the maximum depth (Electrode Pair
7) of investigation for the TDC system in its present
configuration is between approximately 2.5m and 6m; data
obtained from numerous surveys suggest that the TDC system
is consistent with these estimates.
Inversion of TDC Data. The mathematical technique of
inversion is often used on terrestrial resistivity data to
calculate an earth model. Inversions offer mathematically
non-unique solutions and often converge on geologically
unlikely earth models. Compounding this, numerous different
algorithms exist with each tending to produce different results.
Perhaps the most significant drawback to inversion when
applied to TDC data is that it is computationally intensive with
the time required for a solution to converge scaling
geometrically with the number of points evaluated. Consider,
an inversion of just 2km of ReDAS data that evaluated nearly
2000 electrode positions, the data set, which took slightly over
3
an hour to acquire, required a 550MHz Pentium III a
whopping 14 hours to invert[6]! A typical cable route is
hundreds of kilometers with many tens of thousands of
electrode positions; consequently, inversion of TDC data has
not been routinely undertaken.
Cable Burial Assessment Surveys. By the late 1980s,
studies commissioned by the telecommunications industry had
indicated that the most significant threats to
telecommunications cable were due to the activities of third
parties. The most widely recognized of these threats came
from fishing trawler strikes, which caused nearly 60% of all
failures and, in shallower water, from anchor snags, which
accounted for an additional 15% of the failures [1]. Fishing
activity was perceived as becoming an increasingly deeper-
water threat as near-shore fish stocks are progressively being
depleted, forcing fishing activity increasingly further offshore.
These case studies concluded that the most cost effective
method to counter these threats was to bury undersea cables,
leading the industry to attempt cable burial—typically out to
about the 1500-meter contour. Successful cable burial
requires detailed knowledge of the sub-surface in order to
match the characteristics of the burial plow to the sediments
encountered. Both C-BASS and ReDAS were conceived in
response to this need.
Traditional BAS methods. Traditional BAS methods such as
coring, grab sampling, and CPTs (Cone Penetrometer Tests),
while valuable techniques, provide only discrete bottom
sampling. Discrete techniques, applied in complex
environments can easily miss important geologic features and
a route engineer’s reliance on discrete techniques can lead to
shallow cable burial or even an exposed cable in areas that
were inadequately sampled.
Towed resistivity. Towed marine resistivity systems, on the
other hand, provide the route engineer with a continuous 2-D
profile of the top 3 meters of sediment and rock thus offers
significant advantages over discrete methods.
Using towed resistivity vertical layering can easily be
discerned and horizontal facies changes can be readily
assessed. As a precursor to direct sampling methods such as
coring, grab sampling or CPT, the use of electrical techniques
save time, as resistivity permits geologically benign areas to
be quickly discriminated from geologically complex areas
thereby allowing the bulk of the engineering effort to be
directed at the trouble spots.
Plow Performance Prediction. A resistivity based BAS is a
valuable tool for predicting cable plow performance and can
offer several advantages when compared to direct methods
such as towing a ‘Test Plow’. Resistivity surveys are
conducted soon after the sonar route survey so that the
information collected is available early in the route-
engineering phase and can be used to match the plow selection
to the geology encountered. Test plows require a large
A-frame, a heavy winch and high Bollard pull vessel,
capabilities that lay beyond the capacity of many survey-class
vessels. In order to provide data in the engineering phase, a
test plow survey requires the mobilization of a second vessel.
Resistivity surveys save money, as they require only survey-
4 R. F. GRAHAM AND M. E. WILLIAMSON
class vessels and therefore can be conduct from the same
vessel as the sonar survey.
Example TDC Data. Figure 1 presents a 5km section of data
from approximately 150km of continuous data collected
during a roughly North-South cable route survey of the
Yellow Sea. The data presented lie at water depths between
90-96m—shallow enough for seafloor of this region to
have been subaerially exposed at various times during
glacial conditions.
The data segment shows the effect of both a lateral facies
change and horizontal layering. From kilometer post (KP)
470 to 473.4 the data indicate a dense, mature sand body that
is overlain by a more mixed sediment package. These dense
underlying sediments pinch out at about KP 473.4 and from
this point to KP 475 the sediment is more or less consistent
through the depth investigated.
The geologic setting of this feature is consistent with the
interpretation of this dense sand body is a paleo-river channel
emplaced during a eustatic low stand that has been
subsequently overlain by a 1-1.3m thick mixed sediment
package reworked from surrounding material and deposited
during the recent sea level high stand.
Marine Resistivity in the Broader Geotechnical Realm.
While the telecommunication cable industry has been an early
adaptor of towed resistivity, the potential applications for
marine resistivity surveys are much broader then BAS surveys
for submarine cable alone.
Submarine power cables. Submarine power cables are
afforded the same benefits of burial protection. Resistivity
surveys can provide the cable route engineer with the
same advantages his counterpart in the telecommunications
industry has.
Marine oil and gas pipelines. Marine oil and gas pipelines are
highly susceptible to variations in thermal conditions, with
cold spots leading to constricting deposits that can
significantly reduce fluid flow through the pipe. Much
engineering effort is devoted to preventing these cold spots
with traditional solutions to this challenge having lead to the
development of heavily insulated “pipe-in-pipe” pipelines laid
directly on the seafloor. These approaches tend to be
expensive to engineer and like submarine cable they are
susceptible to the activities of third parties. A recent trend in
offshore oil and gas industry has been to bury pipelines for
physical protection and flow assurance. Successful pipeline
burial requires knowledge of the not only the thickness of the
sediments and their mechanical strength, but the thermal
properties as well. Towed marine resistivity, when used in
conjunction with CPTs and other discrete methods, permits the
extrapolation of discrete data to areas not sampled. Resistivity
can offer to the oil and gas pipeline engineer the same
continuous assessment of the near subbottom it provides the
cable route engineer,
Permafrost and Methane Hydrate The application of
electrical methods is particularly appropriate in geologic
settings where there exists a distinct resistivity contrast
between two materials. Compared to sediments, freshwater
ice is highly resistive, as is methane hydrate. Terrestrially,
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measuring the depth to permafrost is an application for which
resistivity is ideally suited. Likewise, towed marine resistivity
systems prove highly effective at locating occurrences of these
materials in the shallow sub-surface.
Prospecting for Offshore Sand Bodies. Towed resistivity can
be used to quickly and easily investigate the top several meters
of seafloor. Resistivity-based reconnaissance surveys can be
employed to quickly locate and evaluate the areal and
volumetric extent of sand bodies to be used as borrow-sites
for beach replenishment projects and for offshore sand
quarrying operations.
Limitations of TDC systems. Resistivity is a measurement of
the bulk properties of the material and is primarily sensitive to
volumetric effects such as porosity, particle shape, particle
sphericity and tortuosity of the pore interconnections[3].
Resistivity cannot differentiate mineralogies. In general, TDC
performs best when it is used in soupy to loose, soft clays and
in sediments where the coarser clastic fraction (particles sizes
ranging from silt to gravel) dominates. In certain instances,
resistivity may not be capable of distinguishing a low porosity,
dewatered, stiff clay from an unconsolidated, fairly open and
easily rippable mixed sediment type.
Marine Induced Polarization
Towed marine Induced Polarization (IP) represents the next
logical step in the development of marine geoelectrical
methods. Towed marine IP is related to the towed DC
methods discussed above, and to the casual observer, a towed
IP array looks very much like a towed resistivity array. Like
DC methods, IP systems measure the Ohmic resistance;
however, IP systems also measure the electrical polarization of
the sediments and rock.
Electrical polarization is related to the electrical quantity
of capacitance, which is a measure of an electrical circuit or a
circuit element to store electrical energy. In AC electrical
circuits the effect of capacitance manifests itself as electrical
impedance—a frequency dependant component of the total
circuit resistance. In DC electrical circuits capacitance
manifests itself as a delay or lag in the response of the circuit
to a change of state in the input of the current.
Geologically, the IP effect can be observed as a subtle
frequency dependence of resistivity or as a lag in the response
curve to array shut-off. IP is generally measured in the time
domain using a crankshaft wave as an input by either
integrating a finite decay curve after array turn-off or more
recently by directly measuring the phase shift between the
transmitted and received signals (Figure 2).
Electrical polarization in geologic material. In geologic
material, electrical polarization is the result of several distinct
energy storage mechanisms stemming from electrochemical
and physiochemical phenomena related to the mineralogy,
petrology and pore-water chemistry of the material through
which the injected current passes. The mechanisms include
clay mineral capacitive effects and a Warburg double-layer
impendence, where under the influence of an applied external
voltage, ions are either absorbed or released (depending on
polarity) by the mineral-electrolyte interface.
OTC 14143 AN INTRODUCTION TO MARINE ELECTRICAL METHODS
The mechanisms responsible for the IP phenomenon
operate under differing relaxation time constants. By selecting
the appropriate input frequency (~0.1-100Hz) the effects due
to various mechanisms may be discriminated.
Time Domain IP
Input Current
I
On (+) Off On (-)
Time
V
Response
Time
Figure 2. Above is a highly exaggerated schematic representation of
time domain IP. Typically, only the relaxation portion (decay) curve is
measured. (After Ward)
Marine IP Hardware. Measured in the field, the IP effect is
small, often amounting to a phase shift from just a few to
several tens of milliradians. Thus, the IP method requires a
significantly more sophisticated measurement approach than
the TDC method previously described.
Marine IP necessitates a gated-current power source
capable of transmitting a well defined and well controlled
‘crankshaft’ input waveform, a high-speed, multi-channel data
acquisition system capable of digital sampling rates of 1024
(or even 2048) samples per waveform, per channel, low noise
titanium transmitter electrodes and a low noise multi-dipole
receiving array constructed from commercially sourced
Ag-AgCl electrodes incorporating low noise pre-amplifiers to
maximize the signal to noise ratio.
The array used is a ‘dipole-dipole’ rather than the inverted
Schlumberger array used in the TDC system because the
dipole-dipole arrangement minimizes signal coupling within
the array cable.
The IP response.
In contrast to resistivity, which is most strongly influenced
by the volumetric properties of the sediment, the IP response
is primarily a surfacial electrochemical phenomenon. The IP
response is also spectral in nature with a peak uniquely
defining a mineral within a given electrochemical
environment. Thus, by selecting the appropriate input
frequency, IP systems can be ‘tuned’ to for look
certain minerals.
Many geologically materials have significant IP responses
including many native metals, many clay minerals and most
notably ilmenite and poly-metallic sulphides.
5
IP Applied to Geologic and Geotechnical Problems.
Many industrially significant materials including ilmenite,
poly-metallic sulphides, many native metals, and many clay
minerals show an IP response. IP surveys produce both phase
and resistivity datasets from a geologic and geoengineering
perspective, measuring two complementary properties has
significant advantages. While, resistivity is primarily a
function of porosity, the IP response is a function the presence
of certain mineral phases and of the total surface area of these
phases. Measuring two complimentary properties together
permits the discrimination deposit in terms of sediment type
and mineralogy.
IP is capable of locating buried metallic objects (Figure 3)
like submarine cable, pipelines and unexploded ordnance[8].
Towed marine IP has been demonstrated effective at mapping
Ilmenite bearing sands[8], and towed marine IP is ideally suited
for mapping deposits containing disseminated pyrite.
Summary
The marine geoelectric methods of towed resistivity and
induced polarization are uniquely suited for quickly and
efficiently investigating many geotechnical problems
encountered in the near sub-bottom.
Bibliography
1) Featherstone & R.Borwick (1999) Competitive Advantage
through System Security, Submarine Communications
Conference, IBC Global Conferences, Cannes,
France. 11p.
2) Archie, G.E. (1942) The Electrical Resistivity Log as an Aid in
Determining some Reservoir Characteristics. AIME 146
pp. 45-62.
3) P.D. Jackson, D. Talyor-Smith and P.N.Stanford (1978)
Resistivity-Porosity-Particle Relationships for Marine Sands.
Geophysics, 43, pp. 1250-1268.
4) A. Roy and A. Apparao (1971) Depth of Investigation in Direct
Current Methods. Geophysics, 36, pp. 1031-1037.
5) R.D. Barker (1989) Depth of Investigation of Colinear,
Symmetrical Four-electrode Arrays. Geophysics, 54,
pp. 943-959.
6) M.H.Loke (2000) Electrical Imaging Surveys for Environmental
and Engineering Studies A practical guide to 2-D and 3-D
surveys. 67p.
7) S. Ward (1990) Resistivity and Induced Polarization Methods In
Geotechnical and Environmental Geophysics. S. H. Ward
editor. pp. 147-190.
8) J.C Wynn and A.E Grosz (2000) Induced Polarization - A Tool
for Mapping Titanium-bearing Placers, Hidden Metallic
Objects, and Urban Waste on and Beneath the Seafloor:
Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, 5.3,
pp. 27-35.
 6
10
Pair 7
Two-layer system Facies No
9
Mixed Sediments over Denser Sands Change Layering Pair 6

8
Pair 5
Pair 4
7 Pair 3
Pair 2
6
Pair 1
5

0
470 471 472 473 474 475
Kilometer Post (km)

Figure 1. Example TDC data the traces are in order (from bottom to top) from the shortest electrode spacing to the longest. The data show a lateral facies change from a two-layered
system consisting of mixed sediments overlaying a denser more, mature sands. The facies change occurs at approximately KP 473.4. Water depth ranges from 90 to 96 meters.
R. F. GRAHAM AND M. E. WILLIAMSON

Metal Object

Figure 2. Single-channel towed IP data collected off Cape Fear, South Carolina. The upper plot is phase (mrad) and lower plot is resistivity data (Ohm*m). The metal object is
believed to be from an old shipwreck, a Swedish cannon has been recovered nearby by other workers. Note the strong anti-correlation between phase and resistivity. Data are
courtesy of Jeff Wynn, USGS.
OTC 14143