Patent ID: 8780669

Claim:
A method for acquiring seismic data for a subsea region of the earth comprising the steps of: providing first and second marine vessels each with a plurality of seismic streamers, wherein the plurality of seismic streamers are coupled to the marine vessels for towing, wherein each seismic streamer comprises a plurality of marine seismic receivers spaced apart along the length of each seismic streamer; providing a plurality of marine seismic sources; introducing the marine seismic sources into a marine environment in range of the marine seismic receivers; towing the seismic streamers through the marine environment such that the first marine vessel and the seismic streamers coupled thereto travel substantially along a first series of linked curved paths and the second marine vessel and the seismic streamers coupled thereto travel substantially along a second series of linked curved paths inverted with respect to the first series of linked curved paths; exciting at least one of the marine seismic sources within range of both the first and second marine vessels while towing the seismic streamers so as to cause acoustic wave energy to travel through the marine environment into the subsea region of the earth; allowing the acoustic wave energy to reflect and refract from the subsea region so as to form reflected and refracted wave energy; and detecting the reflected and refracted wave energy with the marine seismic receivers of both the first and second marine vessels surveying in cooperation with one another so as to form detected seismic data.