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Estimating deep sediment sound speed from head waves at the New England shelf break
Megan S Ballard1, Ying-Tsong Lin2, Julien Bonnel2
1Applied Research Laboratories, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78758, USA.
Abstract:
Head-wave arrivals generated by explosive sources and recorded on a vertical line array were analyzed to estimate deep sediment sound-speed structure at the New England shelf break. Arrival times associated with two subsurface interfaces were identified using beamformed elevation angles and fit with a linear travel-time model. The resulting geoacoustic model includes layers with sound speeds of 1728 ± 14 and 2324 ± 55 m/s located 137 ± 36 and 410 ± 53 m below the seafloor, respectively. Predicted head-wave arrival times derived from the model are consistent with corresponding arrivals observed on an independently deployed seabed recorder.
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