Offshore Cable Burial: How deep is deep enough?
Lead Research Organisation:
British Geological Survey
Department Name: Energy & Marine Geoscience
Abstract
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Organisations
Publications
Macdonald, C
(2023)
Depth of Lowering and Layered Soils; A Case Study From Across the North Sea
| Description | Work Package 1 objectives have been achieved and high-level results feed into future work packages. The primary objective for Work Package 1 was to assess over 10,000 sediment cores from across the North Sea and statistically ascertain the most common layered soil combinations in the shallow subsurface. This influences cable burial risk assessments, which are key to energy security for the UK. The results show that >50% of cores contain layered soils and not single soil profiles, with the most common layered soil combination being sand over clay. These results have been presented in a conference paper, and will inform physical and numerical modelling in Work Packages 2-3, so modelling is undertaken on statistically realistic soil conditions, representative of the whole North Sea area. |
| Exploitation Route | There are several ways that these data can be used in the future. The obvious one is to influence future cable burial risk assessments across the North Sea, as results show the geospatial distribution of single vs layered soil profiles, which are crucial for keeping subsea cables safe and securing green energy for the UK. These results can also be used for future cable burial tool developments by providing real-world data on soil conditions using a robust dataset. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Energy |
| URL | https://sut.org/books-and-conference-proceedings/offshore-site-investigation-and-geotechnics-2023-conference-proceedings/ |