RALPH-a dynamic instrument for sediment dynamics

Author

Heffler, Dave

Author_Institution

Geol. Survey of Canada, Dartmouth, NS., Canada

Volume

2

fYear

1996

fDate

23-26 Sep 1996

Firstpage

728

Abstract

A seafloor instrument, RALPH, has been developed and used at the Geological Survey of Canada (Atlantic). RALPH was designed to study sediment dynamics and the seafloor processes involved. Over the past 17 years, it has grown from a small tripod with a crude tape recorder to a system comprising 5 computers, 800 Mbytes of disk storage and many sensors, RALPH has been deployed in the intertidal zone and on the continental shelf. It is capable of continuous monitoring for several months. It logs time series of waves, tides, and near bed flows. It takes time lapse photographs of the seabed to monitor bedform migration and also images the seafloor acoustically. Suspended sediment is monitored acoustically and optically

Keywords

geophysical equipment; ocean waves; oceanographic equipment; oceanographic techniques; seafloor phenomena; sedimentation; sediments; tides; turbidimetry; RALPH; bedform migration; coast; continental shelf; continuous monitoring; data acquisition; dynamic instrument; geophysical equipment; intertidal zone; marine sediment; mechanical property; near bed flow; ocean; ocean wave; seabed; seafloor geology; sediment dynamics; sedimentation; suspended sediment; tide; turbidity; Geology; Instruments; Monitoring; Protection; Sampling methods; Sea floor; Sea measurements; Sediments; Storms; Tides;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

OCEANS '96. MTS/IEEE. Prospects for the 21st Century. Conference Proceedings

Conference_Location

Fort Lauderdale, FL

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3519-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OCEANS.1996.568317

Filename

568317