Measurement of seabed sound speeds from head waves in shallow water

Acoustic signals from small explosive charges have been measured with sonobuoys on twelve tracks in Australian northern shallow waters with the aim of assessing whether useful geoacoustic information could be obtained. Using the frequency band from 14 to 70 Hz, travel times of head waves were monitored, and the sound speeds and depths of corresponding interfaces in the seabed were derived. The water sound speed varied a little with range, and its depth dependence was allowed for by using its average value. Head waves from interfaces indistinguishable from the seafloor (the water/seabed interface) were detected on only three of the tracks, with derived sound speeds of 2100 to 2300 m/s. The first sub-bottom interfaces were from 50 to 600 m beneath the seafloor, and their sound speeds ranged from around 2000 m/s to 6400 m/s. Thus the head waves were from chalk or limestone, cemented sediments in which sound-speed gradients would be small. The amount of data obtained for the seafloor was limited by incoherence of the signals and, for some tracks, by excessive spacing between shots. The incoherence is generally attributed to multiple head waves that are individually unresolvable, while on two tracks there were indications of medal ground waves. Occasional anomalous data were obtained, but generally the assumptions of the simple interpretation method were found to be valid. Since no curvature in the range-time lines was observed, there was no evidence of sub-bottom sound-speed gradients being significant.