In the News
Demonstration in Puget Sound of New Aperture Sonar, ProSAS 60
3/21/11 – Williamson & Associates, SL Hydrospheric and AST completed a demonstration in Puget Sound of the new 60 kHz synthetic aperture sonar, ProSAS 60 for industry and government reps. Ten centimeter resolution along-track and across-track was achieved across a 900 meter swath. Preparations are in progress to test in deeper waters the full swath width of 3000 meters in a few weeks, and to add a gap filler shortly thereafter. The ProSAS 60 is ready for commercial operations now.
Cable Route Survey for the Regional Scale Nodes Program Completed
3/11/2010 - Williamson & Associates completed the Regional Scale Nodes cable route survey to ascertain a feasible and safe route for the almost 900 km cable system, by acquiring and analyzing geophysical and geotechnical data in order to ascertain a feasible and safe route for the cable system, its deployment, survivability, and subsequent maintenance. The Regional Scale Nodes is a component of the National Science Foundation Ocean Observatories Initiative. The University of Washington is the RSN Implementing Organization for RSN. The offshore survey vessel was the 231 foot R/V Mount Mitchell.
The survey was required to fully characterize the seabed from the Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) reference off Pacific City, Oregon out to a depth of 1500 m along the proposed cable routes. Survey data included high-resolution multibeam bathymetry, side scan sonar, subbottom profiler, coring and mini cone penetrometer data to characterize the upper two meters of the seabed.
Please visit the following links for more information:
rsn.apl.washington.edu
www.ooi.washington.edu
Titanic Revealed Anew With Help From Williamson & Associates Inc.
9/17/10 - Williamson and Associates Inc. provided senior surveyors to operate the navigation and subsea tracking (USBL) systems on board the Jean Charcot in its historic return expedition to the Titanic wreck site. The sponsors of this recent exploration, RMS Titanic Inc. will create high resolution maps, photos and video imaging of the Titanic wreck site that will be used for archeological documentation.
Please visit the following links for more information:
http://www.expeditiontitanic.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/rmstitanicinc?ref=ts
Williamson & Associates Inc. Honored with Prestigious Globe Award
5/29/10 - On Wednesday, June 2, the World Trade Center Tacoma held its 17th annual award ceremony to honor four local businesses at a dinner and silent auction held at the Hotel Murano in downtown Tacoma. A few of the noteworthy event sponsors was American Container Homes, Microsoft, City of Tacoma, Key Bank, and Boeing. The World Trade Center Tacoma 2010 Globe Award went to Williamson & Associates for the ongoing contribution it makes through international trade participation. See full article at the News Tribune.
New Seafloor Drilling System in Japan.
8/24/10 - New seafloor drilling system for Japan under construction. This drill, designated A-BMS, will be a wireline system drill capable of operating in water depths of 4000 meters to sediment depths of 50 meters. Delivery is planned for Fall, 2011.
WWII Hospital Ship Centaur Discovered Off Queensland, Austrailia
12/20/2009 - Austrailian hospital shipwreck discovered after nearly 70 years lost at sea.
Watch ABC's coverage at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGtWp1uTtQ0.
See official documentation at the government online war memorial.
See images of the Centaur shipwreck at News.com.
Press Releases
Globe Award Goes to Williamson & Associates, Inc.
6/8/10 - Williamson & Associates, Inc., a geophysical services and ocean engineering firm of Seattle received the World Trade Center Tacoma 2010 Globe Award for the ongoing contribution it makes through international trade participation. Williamson opened its doors in Seattle in 1983 and has provided geophysical consultations with skilled personnel and state-of-the-art equipment for performing a wide range of under-water services. The company has established a broad-based international clientele and gets contracts to perform ocean mining surveys, wreck searches, telecommunications cable surveys, along with custom design and implementation of large rock drill systems.
In 2010, Williamson completed the cable route survey for the National Science Foundation and University of Washington RSN underwater observatory off Oregon, located the Australian hospital ship Centaur which was sunk in World War II off Brisbane, constructed a deep ocean wireline coring drill for the Indian government and provided equipment and personnel to assist in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Also Williamson recently completed the Unity cable route survey from California to Japan, located the WWII wrecks submarine USS Grunion and Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney, and delivered two rock coring drills to Japan.
Achieving a World Record in Deep Sea Drilling
8/14/06 - As part of Japan’s survey on the extension of the continental shelf, METI conducted drillings on deep seabed, in the cruise of June to July 2006. A drilling succeeded on seabed of 5,815 meters depth with 4 meters’ core sample, in the eastern sea out of Ogasawara-Chichijima. The depth 5,815 meters is a world record for the use of a suspended seabed drilling system. Furthermore, another drilling also succeeded on seabed of 5300 meters depth with core sample.
View PDF for full press release.
Subsea Minerals Exploration in Papau New Guinea
2005 - Williamson & Associates, Inc., a geophysical services company based in Seattle, under contract to Canadian mining giant Placer Dome, completed a survey to characterize sulfide deposits in Papua New Guinea approximately 60 km west northwest of Rabaul in the Bismarck Sea. The survey is Placer Dome’s initial involvement in the subsea minerals exploration program following a recent agreement with Nautilus Minerals Limited of Australia. Previous expeditions to the Manus Basin uncovered surprisingly rich deposits on the seafloor for which preliminary analyses averaged close to 13 grams/ton gold, 167 g/t silver, 5 percent copper, and 22 percent zinc from four holes drilled in to the top five meters of the deposit.
View PDF for full press release.