Acoustic and Related Properties of the Sea Floor


Book Description

The general objectives of this investigation were to determine and study those characteristics of the sea floor that affect sound propagation and the prediction of sonar performance; to support underwater acoustics' experiments and theory by furnishing information on the mass physical properties of sediments and rocks in the form of geoacoustic models of the sea floor; and to develop models of the sea floor which include gradients of sound velocity and attenuation, density, and elastic properties. Specifically, the minor objectives were to revise and review earlier work on the relations between frequency and attenuation of compressional (sound) waves in marine sediments and on the relations between attenuation and sediment porosity. The major objectives were to determine and predict variations of the attenuation of sound waves with depth in the sea floor.




In Situ High-frequency Acoustic Propagation Measurements in Marine Sediments in the Santa Barbara Shelf, California


Book Description

Measurements were made of sound speed and attenuation in marine sediments at 15, 30, and 60kHz by means of in situ acoustic probe instrumentation in conjunction with CURV II. These experiments were conducted in silty sand and sandy silt Continental Shelf areas of the Santa Barbara Channel, California. The main conclusions are: (1) attenuation was found to be about 3, 10, and 20 dB per meter at 15, 30, and 60 kHz, respectively; (2) for the attenuation equation, alpha = K(f to the nth power) (where alpha is sound attenuation in dB per meter, K is a dimensional material parameter, and f is frequency in kHz), the exponent, n, was found to be about 1.2, and K varied from approximately 0.1 to 0.2; (3) no significant sound-speed dispersion was found, in agreement with many other investigations; and (4) individual acoustic measurements made in close proximity to one another in a nominally homogeneous bottom can vary appreciably, although their average values may be in close agreement. (Author).










The Log Analyst


Book Description







Ocean Seismo-Acoustics


Book Description

Seafloor investigation has long been a feature of not only seismology but also of acoustics. Indeed it was acoustics that produced depth sounders, giving us the first capability of producing both global and local maps of the seafloor. Subsequently, better instrumentation and techniques led to a clearer, more quantitative picture of the seabed itself, which stimulated new hypotheses such as seafloor spreading through the availability of more reliable data on sediment thickness over ocean basins and other bottom features. Geologists and geophysicists have used both acoustic and seismic methods to study the seabed by considering the propagation of signals arising from both natural seismic events and man-made impulsive sources. Although significant advances have been made in instrumentation, such as long towed geophysical arrays, ai r guns and ocean bot tom seismometers, the pic ture of the seafloor is still far from complete. Underwater acoustics concerns itself today with the phenomena of propagation and noise at frequencies and ranges that require an understanding of acoustic interaction at both of its boundaries, the sea surface and seafloor, over depths ranging from tens to thousands of meters. Much of the earlier higher frequency (>1 kHz) work included the characterization of the seafloor in regimes of reflection coefficients which were empirically derived from surveys. The results of these studies met with only limited success, confined as they were to those areas where survey data existed and lacking a physical understanding of the processes of reflection and scattering.




SPWLA News Letter


Book Description




Fundamentals of Acoustical Oceanography


Book Description

The developments in the field of ocean acoustics over recent years make this book an important reference for specialists in acoustics, oceanography, marine biology, and related fields. Fundamentals of Acoustical Oceanography also encourages a new generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to apply the modern methods of acoustical physics to probe the unknown sea. The book is an authoritative, modern text with examples and exercises. It contains techniques to solve the direct problems, solutions of inverse problems, and an extensive bibliography from the earliest use of sound in the sea to present references.Written by internationally recognized scientists, the book provides background to measure ocean parameters and processes, find life and objects in the sea, communicate underwater, and survey the boundaries of the sea. Fundamentals of Acoustical Oceanography explains principles of underwater sound propagation, and describes how both actively probing sonars and passively listening hydrophones can reveal what the eye cannot see over vast ranges of the turbid ocean. This book demonstrates how to use acoustical remote sensing, variations in sound transmission, in situ acoustical measurements, and computer and laboratory models to identify the physical and biological parameters and processes in the sea.* Offers an integrated, modern approach to passive and active underwater acoustics* Contains many examples of laboratory scale models of ocean-acoustic environments, as well as descriptions of experiments at sea* Covers remote sensing of marine life and the seafloor* Includes signal processing of ocean sounds, physical and biological noises at sea, and inversions* resents sound sources, receivers, and calibration* Explains high intensities; explosive waves, parametric sources, cavitation, shock waves, and streaming* Covers microbubbles from breaking waves, rainfall, dispersion, and attenuation* Describes sound propagation along ray paths and caustics* Presents sound transmissions and normal mode methods in ocean waveguides