Towable seismic detector conveyance

Claim 1

A towable seismic detector conveyance comprising: a subsTantially flat, long, flexible support member, said member having a substantially uniform width throughout its length, and the width dimension of said member being considerably greater than the thickness dimension of said member to prevent any portion of said member from overturning when said member is being dragged over extended surfaces of the earth; a multi-conductor cable longitudinally mounted on said support member; a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart seismic detectors carried by said member, said detectors being grouped into seismic detector arrays; means for electrically connecting each detector array to a pair of conductors in said cable; and said cable being adapted for connection to a multi-channel seismic signal utilization apparatus.

Claim 6

A method of seismic exploration over the earth''s surface including the steps of: a. towing an elongated belt to a first preselected position on the earth''s surface at the bottom of a body of water, said belt supporting an array of hydrophones and an array of geophones, said arrays being co-extensively arranged on said belt; b. causing seismic waves to propagate through said body of water and through the earth thereby producing reflected seismic waves from sub-surface formations; c. measuring earth motions due to said reflected seismic waves with said geophones, and measuring water-pressure variations due to said reflected seismic waves with said hydrophones; d. simultaneously recording on separate channels of a signal-utilization device the outputs from said arrays of geophones and hydrophones; e. towing said belt to other preselected positions on the earth''s surface; and repeating steps (b), (c) and (d) wherein a portion of said belt at certain ones of said other preselected positions lies underwater and another portion of said belt lies on a dry land surface.

Claim 7

A method of seismic exploration over the earth''s surface including the steps of: a. towing an elongated belt to a first preselected position on the earth''s surface at the bottom of a body of water, said belt supporting an array of hydrophones and an array of geophones, said arrays being co-extensively arranged on said belt; b. causing seismic waves to propagate through said body of water and through the earth thereby producing reflected seismic waves from sub-surface formations; c. measuring earth motions due to said reflected seismic waves with said geophones, and measuring water-pressure variations due to said reflected seismic waves with said hydrophones; d. simultaneously recording on separate channels of a signal-utilization device the outputs from said arrays of geophones and hydrophones; e. towing said belt to other preselected positions on the earth''s surface; and repeating steps (b), (c) and (d) wherein a portion of said belt at certain ones of said other preselected positions lies underwater and another portion of said belt lies on a dry land surface.