Patent ID: 8840340

Claim:
A method of deploying a seabed seismic sensor array over an area of seabed to be investigated, the method comprising: lowering to the seabed a deployment package comprising: a frame; a connection hub mounted to the frame; an inputoutput riser cable having one free end and one end connected to the connection hub; and a number of cartridges detachably mounted to the frame, each cartridge containing a plurality of sensor units joined together in a chain by connecting cables, and one end of each chain being connected to the inputoutput riser cable at the connection hub; and deploying the sensor units over the area of seabed, by: detaching the cartridge from the frame; sequentially moving the cartridge to a plurality of sensor operating positions in the area of seabed; and at each respective sensor operating position, ejecting a respective one of the sensor units from the cartridge; wherein each sensor unit comprises: a housing enclosing a number of sensors; an internal cavity within the housing; and a connecting cable within the cavity; wherein while the cartridge is being moved between sensor operating positions, the connecting cable moves out of the cavity of one of a last-deployed sensor unit and a next sensor unit to be deployed.