Xeos will be supplying 120 Apollo Mono GPS, Iridium and LED beacons along with 120 XMB RF recovery beacons to monitor, track and recover a network of Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS) deployed across the world’s oceans and inland seas. The system of beacons will provide precise location information to the deployment and recovery teams in real-time, while also providing a safeguard against any unplanned surfacing events.

The beacons will be integrated with the Broadband Ocean Bottom Seismometers (BOBS) manufactured by Güralp Systems Ltd in the UK. Guralp’s BOBS systems use acoustic telemetry to deliver near real-time seismic data from the ocean floor to the surface without cables. The state-of-the-art BOBS network created for this project, designed to replace the previous system decommissioned in 2015, will support  fundamental science discoveries. The goal is to generate a vast repository of core data that NFSI scientists can utilize to probe critically important questions related to earth structures, undersea earthquakes and tsunamis. The NFSI is a partnership of ten major universities from across Canada including Dalhousie University, University of Victoria, University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, University of Manitoba, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Université du Québec à Montréal, McGill University and Memorial University.

Xeos will work in close cooperation with Güralp and the NFSI project team to provide user training to ensure successful deployment and recovery missions. Geoff MacIntyre, Vice President at Xeos Technologies commented, “An enormous amount of time, energy and resources will be put into this project over the next couple of years and we are honoured to have been chosen to provide the technology responsible for safeguarding and recovering it all. The data that this system will produce over the next several years will be used to expand our understanding of the ocean bottom environment and support important scientific discoveries. We are looking forward to working with the project team and helping it all come together”.   

Professor Mladen Nedimovic, NFSI Director, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University said: “The NFSI is thrilled to have Xeos Technologies as a partner and supplier of 120 sets of recovery devices for our BOBS. We look forward to working together toward safe deployments and recoveries of our large fleet of BOBS with the goal to record data that will transform our understanding about critically important earth structures, particularly those offshore Canada that generate large earthquakes and tsunamis.”

To learn more about both NFSI and Güralp, check out there websites!