The Search for Oil & Gas

Suited Divers For Seafloor Geology

Suited divers were used in the early 1940s to explore underwater for potential oil and gas. The divers laid out a sequence of traverses, measuring strike and dip of outcrop beds on the sea floor and collecting samples for micropaleontologic studies. Collected at regular intervals, the samples were bagged and marked with location coordinates and floated to the surface using balloons inflated by an underwater air supply. The data were plotted on a map using a sextant to measure angles from known points on land. This led eventually to the discovery of the Hondo field, one of the largest offshore fields in California.

Recognizing the pioneering efforts of the following people and companies who contributed to the development of this technology:

Bob Dietz, Robert Dill, Ed Hamilton, Bill Menard
Humble Oil & Refining Co. (ExxonMobil), Signal Oil (Phillips), Standard Oil of California (ChevronTexaco)