EurOCEAN 2000 - Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee

CONCLUSIONS
GEOSTAR 2 is a project aimed at demonstrating through a long term (6-8
months) scientific mission in deep sea conditions, the complete functionality of
the benthic multidisciplinary observatory developed and tested during
GEOSTAR Project. The deployment of GEOSTAR observatory for its longterm
scientific mission in Southern Tyrrhenian Sea (3,400 m w.d.), in front of
Ustica Island, is foreseen in September 2000 and it will ended in Spring-
Summer 2001 with station recovery. For this purpose, the existing observatory has been
appropriately enhanced to meet scientific mission requirements. The scientific target of mission
in the Tyrrhenian Sea is to give a contribution to the better understanding of the geodynamics
and the seismotectonics and oceanography of the Tyrrhenian Basin.
During the deep sea Ustica mission GEOSTAR will perform:
• continuous, long-term acquisition of three-component seismic data with associated
observation of environmental parameters (current, temperature, pressure) and BS
altitude (tilt, heading);
• observation of temporal variability of geophysical parameters (earth magnetic field,
earth gravity field);
• observation of temporal variability of oceanographic parameters (currents in the water
column, tide);
• observation of temporal variability of geochemical parameters (water temperature,
conductivity, salinity, turbidity, pH, H2S);
• water sampling at programmed times (samples will be then available for on-shore
laboratory analyses ;
• acquisition of seismic data with an innovative sensor originally developed for
missions on planet Mars.
Moreover, from December 2000 to September 2001, in the frame of the TYDE (TYrrhenian
Deep-sea Experiment) project, a temporary network of the broad band Ocean Bottom
Seismometers will be installed for the first time in the area of the Aeolian Islands. An on-land
network of broadband seismic instruments covering southern part of Italy will be also present.
The scientific objective is to perform analysis on data collected by GEOSTAR and OBS sensor
joint to data recorded from the local, regional and national land-based seismic networks. The
use of a more homogeneous stations coverage in this sector of the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea
will be useful to obtain new tomographic models to better define the shape and the extends of
the Ionian subducting lithosphere.
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