''Single-bubble'' marine source offers new perspectives for lithospheric exploration

We present deep penetration seismic time sections obtained in the last two years with the ''single-bubble'' pulse generating method using marine seismic airguns. Whole crustal penetration and resolution have been obtained on the Ionian quasi oceanic basin and its margin, on the continental crust of the Aegean Sea, on the continental margins, and oceanic basin of the Gulf of Biscay. We show that this method is more efficient than others in radiating the lower frequencies returned by deep structure, without loosing resolution. Hence it allows deep crustal imaging from relatively low-power academic ships, and if the method is applied to powerful industrial vessels, it may open the subcrustal lithosphere to imaging.