Research: NRL scientists probe Gulf acoustics

STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss. - Scientists from the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center and Washington, D.C., recently completed an investigation of the acoustic properties of the deep seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists measured the effects of geologic faulting on the efficiency of acoustic wave propagation. In stiff sediments, sound waves traveling across the cracks in the earth tend to propagate slower and with lower amplitude than waves traveling along the faults. The magnitude of this effect in soft, deep water sediments is not known. To measure the effect, researchers introduced a sound - created by the Deep Towed Acoustics Geophysics System - and then listened with vertical arrays of hydrophones. "What we are trying to determine with this experiment is to what extent the 'visibility' depends on the direction we are looking," said Dr. Warren Wood, a geophysicist in the Marine Geosciences Division at NRL-SSC. (Source: Naval Research Laboratory, 05/10/10)