RITE-CSIRO Collaboration commences testing at the In Situ Laboratory

As one of our international bilateral engagement projects between Japan and Australia, the Research Institute of the Technology of the Earth (RITE) is partnering with the Energy Resources Program at the CSIRO In-Situ Lab research facility.

By combining RITE technology with the uniqueness of the CSIRO ISL site, the collaboration aims at demonstrating the use of the Distributed Strain Sensing (DSS) technology (part of the distributed fibre optic sensing family) as a viable CCUS monitoring technology for the assessment of fault systems.

Phase 1 of the project focused on an improved site characterization effort, including the design and acquisition of 23 km of 2D seismic line using 4,624 wireless nodes (1 every 5m) and 2,312 shots, the reprocessing of a legacy regional scale 3D seismic survey and the installation of four downhole geophones.

This data is providing invaluable knowledge regarding the local ISL subsurface and especially the major fault present here, underpinning the uniqueness of the research site.