INTMARSIS: A Real Time Seafloor Seismic Observatory

In this paper we present the current status of a marine seismometer to be deployed in the Alboran Sea in September 2016. The design consists of a seafloor unit and a surface buoy connected by a cable. This design pretends to be an alternative to OBS (Ocean Bottom Seismometer) in shallow waters (depth < 500 m). In contrast to OBS, a physical connection between the seafloor unit and the surface buoy allows real time data processing and offshore communication. Even though an umbilical cable seems to be the more obvious alternative, the low energetic consumption of the seafloor unit and the recent improvements in inductive communications open a very interesting new possibility using steel cables.