Seafloor Sediment Study from South China Sea: Acoustic & Physical Property Relationship

Remote Sensing

Zhengyu Hou¹  Changsheng Guo¹  Jingqiang Wang²  Wenjing Chen¹  Yongtao Fu¹ 

[1] Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Environment, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, NO. 7 Nanhai Road, Shinan District, Qingdao 266071, China; E-Mails:;First Institute of Oceanography, SOA, No. 6 Xianxialing Road, Laoshan District, Qingdao 266061, China; E-Mail:

关键词: sound velocity;    empirical equation;    physical properties;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs70911570

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Seafloor sediments of different geographical areas in the southern South China Sea (continental shelf, continental slope, and Okinawa Trough) were gravity cored at 21 locations. Sound velocities (V) of the samples were measured at 15-cm increments immediately upon retrieval, and porosity, wet bulk density, and mean grain size were measured later in the laboratory. Empirical equations from previous studies were applied to predict V of sediment samples from the measured physical properties and it was found that the sound velocities derived from the existing equations did not closely match the measured sound velocities. Therefore empirical equations were reconstructed based on the measured data that represent the relationships between physical and acoustic properties of the different geographical area in the study area. Possible explanations for the discrepancies between the measured data and those of previous studies were investigated and found that physical properties, sediment types, geographical area, etc. are important factors that influence sound velocity. The empirical equations of this report should be preferred for prediction of sediment sound velocity for high-frequency acoustic experiments.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.