DOI: 10.1121/10.0046865 ISSN: 2691-1191
Estimating deep sediment sound speed from head waves at the New England shelf break
Megan S. Ballard, Ying-Tsong Lin, Julien Bonnel, David P. Knobles, Andrew R. McNeese, Preston S. WilsonHead-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.