Processed seismic data of Cruise BGR95 1995

The cruise BGR95 from 19th November to 28th December 1995 with M.S. AKADEMIK NEMCHINOV was designed to acquire new marine geophysical data for a better understanding of the geological processes and structural variations of the Cretaceous-aged oceanic crust of the Angola Basin in the South Atlantic regarding its reflectivity pattern, its shape of the basement surfaces and its crustal thickness. These evaluations were extended onshore to the ‘Damara Igneous Province’. The aim of this study was the investigation of the rift-related volcanic-magmatic processes accompanying the initial stage of the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. The survey was a co-operation of BGR, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, University of Göttingen and Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main. The M.S. AKADEMIK NEMCHINOV generated the seismic signals by a tuned airgun array of 3260 cu.in. (= 53.4 l) together with two AWI owned large volume guns of 2 x 2000 cu.in. (= 65.6 l), recorded the MCS signals with a 3000 m streamer and controlled the shot releases for the ocean bottom hydrophones (OBH’s) and the onshore seismic stations (PEDAS). A total of 5,114 km of multichannel seismic reflection data in parallel with magnetic and gravity measurements have been collected onboard the M.S. AKADEMIK NEMCHINOV. 1069.4 km of the seismic work was done on 3 combined refraction/wide angle offshore and onshore traverses. The offshore part was recorded by 7 ocean bottom hydrophones (OBH) operated by the M.V. POLAR QUEEN (Reichert et al., 1996). The registration onshore Namibia was performed by 25 mobile seismic landstations (PEDAS) on each profile (Schulze et al., 1996). First results are described in the offshore and onshore reports of these investigations (Reichert et al., 1996, and Schulze et al., 1996). The data clearly show distinct series of the seaward dipping reflector sequences (SRDS) and isochronous variations in the accretion of the oceanic crust. The onshore and offshore registrations show deep arrivals from diving and refracted waves in a range up to 200 to 400 km.