Monitoring vibrations in a pipeline network

The invention relates to acoustic detection of leaks in a pipeline using locally-intelligent, data-adaptive monitors deployed for a period of time. Monitors are initialized by a base station. Following deployment, monitors receive vibration signals at programmed times, process the vibration signals to detect and characterize abnormal vibrations, and save the processed data in the monitor. Monitors may communicate digitally with a base station, sending processed data and receiving instructions. Alternatively, monitors may be removed from the pipeline and placed in a docking station prior to initialization and subsequent re-deployment on a pipeline. A procedural step of re-synchronization corrects for any misalignments in time that may occur among received vibration signals from different monitors. Received vibration signals from two or more monitors may then be analyzed using a correlative method to localize the position of any leaks present in the pipeline.