Simulation of seafloor electrical resistivity measuring equipment based on 3D finite element method

In order to explore the mineral resources buried in sea mud, it is necessary to use seabed resistivity measuring equipment, which works closer to the sediments than ordinary ship-based geophysical measuring equipment. Because of the harsh environment of seafloor, high pressure and highly conductive seawater, marine magnetotelluric method developed slowly. The sea floor environment is similar to the environment of logging, According to the design of dual lateral logging equipment, a new equipment for seafloor electrical resistivity measurement is designed. Four 3D FEM models that contain resistivity abnormal targets are built to test the a- bility of this equipment to locate different shape of shallow buried resistivity abnormal targets in sea mud. The authors propose the method to correct the response curve while the bottom surface of this equipment is suspended or not parallel to the seafloor. The resistivity of targets can be calculated accurately.