Lower St Lawrence Ocean Bottom Experiment

This dataset represents the marine portion of an interdisciplinary amphibious study of earthquake activity in the Lower St. Lawrence Seismic Zone (LSLS). Researchers are also investigating the feasibility of locating and tracking baleen whale species in the St. Lawrence Estuary using calls recorded by ocean-bottom seismographs. Funding for the project is provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the NSERC Ship Time program, the Public Safety Geoscience program of the Geological Survey of Canada, and NSERC Discovery Grants to several Principal Investigators.

Previous seismological study of the LSLS has been exclusively land-based with relatively sparse station coverage. By placing OBS directly above the most active areas of the LSLS (in the middle of the channel), this project aims to greatly improve detection and location of small earthquakes to better delineate seismogenic fault structures and characterize the overall seismic risk to nearby communities.