Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles) ISSN (Print) 0956-540X - ISSN (Online) 1365-246X Published by Oxford University Press[370 journals]
Authors:Pfeffer JJ; Spada GG, Mémin AA, et al. Abstract: In recent decades, geodetic techniques have allowed detecting vertical land motions and sea-level changes of a few millimetres per year, based on measurements taken at the coast (tide gauges), on board of satellite platforms (satellite altimetry) or both (Global Navigation Satellite System). Here, contemporary vertical land motions are analysed from January 1993 to July 2013 at 849 globally distributed coastal sites. The vertical displacement of the coastal platform due to surface mass changes is modelled using elastic and viscoelastic Green’s functions. Special attention is paid to the effects of glacial isostatic adjustment induced by past and present-day ice melting. Various rheological and loading parameters are explored to provide a set of scenarios that could explain the coastal observations of vertical land motions globally. In well-instrumented regions, predicted vertical land motions explain more than 80 per cent of the variance observed at scales larger than a few hundred kilometres. Residual vertical land motions show a strong local variability, especially in the vicinity of plate boundaries due to the earthquake cycle. Significant residual signals are also observed at scales of a few hundred kilometres over nine well-instrumented regions forming observation windows on unmodelled geophysical processes. This study highlights the potential of our multitechnique database to detect geodynamical processes, driven by anthropogenic influence, surface mass changes (surface loading and glacial isostatic adjustment) and tectonic activity (including the earthquake cycle, sediment and volcanic loading, as well as regional tectonic constraints). Future improvements should be aimed at densifying the instrumental network and at investigating more thoroughly the uncertainties associated with glacial isostatic adjustment models. PubDate: 2017-05-19
Authors:Wu X. Abstract: Geophysical inversion is often ill-posed because of inaccurate and insufficient data. Regularization is often applied to the inversion problem to obtain a stable solution by imposing additional constraints on the model. Common regularization schemes impose isotropic smoothness on solutions and may have difficulties in obtaining geologically reasonable models that are often supposed to be anisotropic and conform to subsurface structural and stratigraphic features. I introduce a general method to incorporate constraints of seismic structural and stratigraphic orientations and fault slips into geophysical inversion problems. I first use a migrated seismic image to estimate structural and stratigraphic orientations and fault slip vectors that correlate fault blocks on opposite sides of a fault. I then use the estimated orientations and fault slips to construct simple and convenient anisotropic regularization operators in inversion problems to spread information along structural and stratigraphic orientations and across faults. In this way, we are able to compute inverted models that conform to seismic reflectors, faults and stratigraphic features such as channels. The regularization is also helpful to integrate well-log properties into the inversion by spreading the measured rock properties away from the well-log positions into the whole inverted model across faults and along structural and stratigraphic orientations. I use a 3-D synthetic example of impedance inversion to illustrate the structure-, stratigraphy- and fault-guided regularization method. I further applied the method to estimate seismic interval velocity and to compute structure- and stratigraphy-oriented semblance. PubDate: 2017-05-19
Authors:Rubino J; Caspari E, Müller TM, et al. Abstract: The degree of connectivity of fracture networks is a key parameter that controls the hydraulic properties of fractured rock formations. The current understanding is that this parameter does not alter the effective elastic properties of the probed medium and, hence, cannot be inferred from seismic data. However, this reasoning is based on static elasticity, which neglects dynamic effects related to wave-induced fluid pressure diffusion (FPD). Using a numerical upscaling procedure based on the theory of quasi-static poroelasticity, we provide the first evidence to suggest that fracture connectivity can reduce significantly velocity anisotropy in the seismic frequency band. Analyses of fluid pressure fields in response to the propagation of seismic waves demonstrate that this reduction of velocity anisotropy is not due to changes of the geometrical characteristics of the probed fracture networks, but rather related to variations of the stiffening effect of the fracture fluid in response to FPD. These results suggest that accounting for FPD effects may not only allow for improving estimations of geometrical and mechanical properties of fracture networks, but may also provide information with regard to the effective hydraulic properties. PubDate: 2017-04-26
Authors:Chen S; Wu Y, Hsu Y, et al. Abstract: We study internal deformation of the Taiwan orogen, a young arc-continental collision belt, which the spatial heterogeneity remains unclear. We aim to ascertain heterogeneity of the orogenic crust in depth when specifying general mechanisms of the Taiwan orogeny. To reach this goal, we used updated data of continuous GPS (cGPS) and earthquake focal mechanisms to reassess geodetic strain-rate and seismic stress fields of Taiwan, respectively. We updated the both data sets from 1990 to 2015 to provide large amount of constraints on surficial and internal deformation of the crust for a better understanding. We estimated strain-rate tensors by calculating gradient tensors of cGPS station velocities in horizontal 0.1°-spacing grids via Delaunay triangulation. We determined stress tensors within a given horizontal and vertical grid cell of 0.1° and 10 km, respectively, by employing the spatial and temporal stress inversion. To minimize effects of the 1999 Mw 7.6 Chi–Chi earthquake on trends of the strain and stress, we modified observational possible bias of the cGPS velocities after the earthquake and removed the first 15-month focal mechanisms within the fault rupture zone. We also calculated the Anderson fault parameter (Aϕ) based on stress ratios and rake angles to quantitatively describe tectonic regimes of Taiwan. By examining directions of seismic compressive axes and styles of faulting, our results indicate that internal deformation of the crust is presently heterogeneous in the horizontal and vertical spaces. Directions of the compressive axes are fan-shaped oriented between N10°W and N110°W in the western and mid-eastern Taiwan at the depths of 0–20 km and near parallel to orientations of geodetic compressional axes. The orientations agreed with predominantly reverse faulting in the western Taiwan at the same depth range, implying a brittle deformation regime against the Peikang Basement High. Orientations of the compressive axes most rotated counter-clockwise at the depths of 20–40 km, coinciding with transition of styles of faulting from reverse to strike-slip faulting along the depths as revealed by variation of the Aϕ values. The features indicate that internal deformation of the upper crust is primarily driven by the same compressional mechanism. It implies that geodetic strains could detect the deformation from surface down to a maximal depth of 20 km in most regimes of Taiwan. We find that heterogeneity in orientations of compressive axes and styles of faulting is strong in two regimes at the northern and southern Central Range, coinciding to areas of the orogenic thinned/thickened crust. Conversely, the heterogeneity is weak in the central Western Foothills at surrounding area of root of the overthickened crust. This observation, coupled with regional seismological observations, may imply that vertical deformation from crustal thickening and thinning and thinning-related dynamics from mantle flows may have joint influence on degree of stress heterogeneity. PubDate: 2017-04-26
Authors:Viens L; Denolle M, Miyake H, et al. Abstract: Seismic interferometry is now widely used to retrieve the impulse response function of the Earth between two distant seismometers. The phase information has been the focus of most passive imaging studies, as conventional seismic tomography uses traveltime measurements. The amplitude information, however, is harder to interpret because it strongly depends on the distribution of ambient seismic field sources and on the multitude of processing methods. Our study focuses on the latter by comparing the amplitudes of the impulse response functions calculated between seismic stations in the Kanto sedimentary basin, Japan, using several processing techniques. This region provides a unique natural laboratory to test the reliability of the amplitudes with complex wave propagation through the basin, and dense observations from the Metropolitan Seismic Observation network. We compute the impulse response functions using the cross correlation, coherency and deconvolution techniques of the raw ambient seismic field and the cross correlation of 1-bit normalized data. To validate the amplitudes of the impulse response functions, we use a shallow Mw 5.8 earthquake that occurred on the eastern edge of Kanto Basin and close to a station that is used as the virtual source. Both S and surface waves are retrieved in the causal part of the impulse response functions computed with all the different techniques. However, the amplitudes obtained from the deconvolution method agree better with those of the earthquake. Despite the expected wave attenuation due to the soft sediments of the Kanto Basin, seismic amplification caused by the basin geometry dominates the amplitudes of S and surface waves and is captured by the ambient seismic field. To test whether or not the anticausal part of the impulse response functions from deconvolution also contains reliable amplitude information, we use another virtual source located on the western edge of the basin. We show that the surface wave amplitudes of the anticausal part agree well with those of a shallow Mw 4.7 event that occurred close to the virtual source. This study demonstrates that the deconvolution technique seems to be the best strategy to retrieve reliable relative amplitudes from the ambient seismic field in the Kanto Basin. PubDate: 2017-04-21
Authors:Ansari SM; Farquharson CG, MacLachlan SP. Abstract: SummaryIn this paper, a new finite-element solution to the potential formulation of the geophysical electromagnetic (EM) problem that explicitly implements the Coulomb gauge, and that accurately computes the potentials and hence inductive and galvanic components, is proposed. The modelling scheme is based on using unstructured tetrahedral meshes for domain subdivision, which enables both realistic Earth models of complex geometries to be considered and efficient spatially variable refinement of the mesh to be done. For the finite-element discretization edge and nodal elements are used for approximating the vector and scalar potentials respectively. The issue of non-unique, incorrect potentials from the numerical solution of the usual incomplete-gauged potential system is demonstrated for a benchmark model from the literature that uses an electric-type EM source, through investigating the interface continuity conditions for both the normal and tangential components of the potential vectors, and by showing inconsistent results obtained from iterative and direct linear equation solvers. By explicitly introducing the Coulomb gauge condition as an extra equation, and by augmenting the Helmholtz equation with the gradient of a Lagrange multiplier, an explicitly gauged system for the potential formulation is formed. The solution to the discretized form of this system is validated for the above-mentioned example and for another classic example that uses a magnetic EM source. In order to stabilize the iterative solution of the gauged system, a block diagonal pre-conditioning scheme that is based upon the Schur complement of the potential system is used. For all examples, both the iterative and direct solvers produce the same responses for the potentials, demonstrating the uniqueness of the numerical solution for the potentials and fixing the problems with the interface conditions between cells observed for the incomplete-gauged system. These solutions of the gauged system also produce the physically anticipated behaviours for the inductive and galvanic components of the electric field. For a realistic geophysical scenario, the gauged scheme is also used to synthesize the magnetic field response of a model of the Ovoid ore deposit at Voisey’s Bay, Labrador, Canada. The results are in good agreement with the helicopter-borne EM data from the real survey, and the inductive and galvanic parts of the current density show expected behaviours. PubDate: 2017-04-17
Authors:Price DC; Angus DA, Garcia AA, et al. Abstract: A rock physics model attempts to account for the nonlinear stress dependence of seismic velocity by relating changes in stress and strain to changes in seismic velocity and anisotropy. Understanding and being able to model this relationship is crucial for any time-lapse geophysical or geohazard modelling scenario. In this study, we take a number of commonly used rock physics models and assess their behaviour and stability when applied to stress versus velocity measurements of a large (dry) core data set of different lithologies. We invert and calibrate each model and present a database of models for over 400 core samples. The results of which provide a useful tool for setting a priori parameter constraints for future model inversions. We observe that some models assume an increase in VP/VS ratio (hence Poisson’s ratio) with stress. A trait not seen for every sample in our data set. We demonstrate that most model parameters are well constrained. However, third-order elasticity models become ill-posed when their equations are simplified for an isotropic rock. We also find that third-order elasticity models are limited by their approximation of an exponential relationship via functions that lack an exponential term. We also argue that all models are difficult to parametrize without the availability of core data. Therefore, we derive simple relationships between model parameters, core porosity and clay content. We observe that these relationship are suitable for estimating seismic velocities of rock but poor when comes to predicting changes related to effective stress. The findings of this study emphasize the need for improvement to models if quantitatively accurate predictions of time-lapse velocity and anisotropy are to be made. Certain models appear to better fit velocity depth log data than velocity–stress core data. Thus, there is evidence to suggest a limitation in core data as a representation of the stress dependence of the subsurface. The differences in the stress dependence of the subsurface compared to that measured under laboratory conditions could potentially be significant. Although potentially difficult to investigate, its importance is of great significance if we wish to accurately interpret the stress dependence of subsurface seismic velocities. PubDate: 2017-04-17
Authors:Chen Y; Xie J. Abstract: We address two fundamental issues that pertain to Q tomography using high-frequency regional waves, particularly the Lg wave. The first issue is that Q tomography uses complex ‘reduced amplitude data’ as input. These data are generated by taking the logarithm of the product of (1) the observed amplitudes and (2) the simplified 1D geometrical spreading correction. They are thereby subject to ‘modeling errors’ that are dominated by uncompensated 3D structural effects; however, no knowledge of the statistical behaviour of these errors exists to justify the widely used least-squares methods for solving Q tomography. The second issue is that Q tomography has been solved using various iterative methods such as LSQR (Least-Squares QR, where QR refers to a QR factorization of a matrix into the product of an orthogonal matrix Q and an upper triangular matrix R) and SIRT (Simultaneous Iterative Reconstruction Technique) that do not allow for the quantitative estimation of model resolution and error. In this study, we conduct the first rigorous analysis of the statistics of the reduced amplitude data and find that the data error distribution is predominantly normal, but with long-tailed outliers. This distribution is similar to that of teleseismic traveltime residuals. We develop a screening procedure to remove outliers so that data closely follow a normal distribution. Next, we develop an efficient tomographic method based on the PROPACK software package to perform singular value decomposition on a data kernel matrix, which enables us to solve for the inverse, model resolution and covariance matrices along with the optimal Q model. These matrices permit for various quantitative model appraisals, including the evaluation of the formal resolution and error. Further, they allow formal uncertainty estimates of predicted data (Q) along future paths to be made at any specified confidence level. This new capability significantly benefits the practical missions of source identification and source size estimation, for which reliable uncertainty estimates are especially important. We apply the new methodologies to data from southeastern China to obtain a 1 Hz Lg Q model, which exhibits patterns consistent with what is known about the geology and tectonics of the region. We also solve for the site response model. PubDate: 2017-04-12
Authors:Bardsley OP; Davidson PA. Abstract: We consider the dispersion of waves in a rapidly rotating, Boussinesq fluid which is threaded by a magnetic field and stirred by slowly gravitating buoyant blobs. Motivated by dynamics in the core of the Earth, we focus on the evolution of inertial-Alfvén wave packets radiated from the buoyant anomalies. These waves resemble conventional low-frequency inertial waves, in the sense that energy disperses on the fast timescale of the background rotation rate, though they also exhibit slower Alfvén-like propagation along magnetic field lines. When the magnetic field is uniform, inertial-Alfvén waves automatically focus energy radiation onto the rotation axis, a property they share with conventional low-frequency inertial waves in the hydrodynamic case, and which ensures that they dominate the dispersion pattern. However, the situation changes significantly when the magnetic field, B, is non-uniform. In particular, we show any non-uniformity of B causes inertial-Alfvén waves to evolve into a more general form of magnetic-Coriolis (MC) wave, and that these waves refract, dispersing somewhat off-axis. Moreover, if inertial-Alfvén waves are launched near the equator they can be confined to low latitudes by a critical layer at which the axial group velocity drops to zero. Given that the magnetic field in a planetary core is inevitably non-uniform, we conclude that quasi-geostrophy is most likely achieved through a combination of weakly modified inertial waves and a form of slightly off-axis MC wave in which the inertial and Alfvén frequencies are comparable. PubDate: 2017-04-11
Authors:Cammarano F; Guerri M. Abstract: SummaryUnravelling the thermal structure of the outermost shell of our planet is key for understanding its evolution. We obtain temperatures from interpretation of global shear-velocity (VS) models. Long-wavelength thermal structure is well determined by seismic models and only slightly affected by compositional effects and uncertainties in mineral-physics properties. Absolute temperatures and gradients with depth, however, are not well constrained. Adding constraints from petrology, heat-flow observations and thermal evolution of oceanic lithosphere helps to better estimate absolute temperatures in the top part of the lithosphere. We produce global thermal models of the lithosphere at different spatial resolution, up to spherical-harmonics degree 24, and provide estimated standard deviations. All relevant physical properties, with the exception of thermal conductivity, are based on a self-consistent thermodynamical modelling approach. Our global thermal models also include density and compressional-wave velocities (VP) as obtained either assuming no lateral variations in composition or a simple reference 3-D compositional structure, which takes into account a chemically depleted continental lithosphere. The global thermal models should serve as the basis to move at a smaller spatial scale, where additional thermo-chemical variations required by geophysical observations can be included. PubDate: 2017-04-11
Authors:Harte DS. Abstract: SummaryEarthquake probability forecasts based on a point process model, which is defined with a conditional intensity function (e.g. ETAS), are generally made by using the history of the process to the current point in time, and by then simulating over the future time interval over which a forecast is required. By repeating the simulation multiple times, an estimate of the mean number of events together with the empirical probability distribution of event counts can be derived. This can involve a considerable amount of computation. Here we derive a recursive procedure to approximate the expected number of events when forecasts are based on the ETAS model. To assess the associated uncertainty of this expected number, we then derive the probability generating function of the distribution of the forecasted number of events. This theoretically derived distribution is very complex; hence we show how it can be approximated using the negative binomial distribution. PubDate: 2017-04-11
Authors:Niu Q; Revil A, Li Z, et al. Abstract: The anisotropy of granular media and its evolution during shearing are important aspects required in developing physics-based constitutive models in Earth sciences. The development of relationships between geoelectrical properties and the deformation of porous media has applications to the monitoring of faulting and landslides. However, such relationships are still poorly understood. In this study, we first investigate the definition of the electrical conductivity anisotropy tensor of granular materials in presence of surface conductivity of the grains. Fabric anisotropy is related to the components of the fabric tensor. We define an electrical anisotropy factor based on the Archie's exponent second-order symmetric tensor m of granular materials. We use numerical simulations to confirm a relationship between the evolution of electrical and fabric anisotropy factors during shearing. To realize the simulations, we build a virtual laboratory in which we can easily perform synthetic experiments. We first simulate drained compressive triaxial tests of loose and dense granular materials (porosity 0.45 and 0.38, respectively) using the discrete element method. Then, the electrical conductivity tensor of a set of deformed synthetic samples is computed using the finite-difference method. The numerical results show that shear strains are responsible for a measurable anisotropy in the bulk conductivity of granular media. The observed electrical anisotropy response, during shearing, is distinct for dense and loose synthetic samples. Electrical and fabric anisotropy factors exhibit however a unique linear correlation, regardless of the shear strain and the initial state (porosity) of the synthetic samples. The practical implication of this finding confirms the usefulness of the electrical conductivity method in studying the fabric tensor of granular media. This result opens the door in using time-lapse electrical resistivity to study non-intrusively the evolution of anisotropy of soils and granular rocks during deformation, for instance during landslides, and to use the evolution of the conductivity tensor to monitor mechanical properties. PubDate: 2017-04-06
Authors:Valet J; Tanty C, Carlut J. Abstract: We conducted several redeposition experiments in laboratory using natural and artificial sediments in order to investigate the role of grain size and lithology on sedimentary remanence acquisition. The role of grain size was investigated by using sorted sediment from natural turbidites. Taking advantage of the magnetic grain size distribution within turbidites, we compared redeposition experiments performed with coarse magnetic grains taken from the bottom layers of a turbidite with fine grains from the upper layers of the same turbidite. In order to document the magnetization acquired for increasing sediment concentrations that is analogous to increasing depth in the sediment column, the samples were frozen at temperatures between −5 and −10 °C. Magnetization acquisition behaved similarly in both situations, so that little smearing of the palaeomagnetic signal should be linked to grain size variability within this context. Other series of experiments were aimed at investigating the influence of lithology. We used clay or carbonated sediments that were combined with magnetic separates from basaltic rocks or with single-domain biogenic magnetite. The experiments revealed that the magnetization responded differently with clay and carbonates. Clay rapidly inhibited alignment of magnetic grains at low concentrations and, therefore, significant magnetization lock-in occurred despite large water contents, perhaps even within the bioturbated layer. Extension of the process over a deeper interval contributes to smear the geomagnetic signal and therefore to alter the palaeomagnetic record. In carbonates, the magnetization was acquired within a narrow window of 45–50 per cent sediment concentration, therefore, little smearing of the geomagnetic signal can be expected. Finally, experiments on carbonate sediments and biogenic magnetite with increasing field intensities indicate that magnetization acquisition is linear with respect to field intensity. Altogether, the results suggest that sediments with dominant carbonate content should be favoured for records of geomagnetic field changes provided that the minor clay fraction does not vary excessively. They confirm the advantage of using cultures of magnetotactic bacteria for redeposition experiments. PubDate: 2017-04-06
Authors:Cantore L; Rovelli A, Calderoni G. Abstract: SummaryThe village of Onna, a 10 km apart from L’Aquila, central Italy, was dramatically struck by the 2009 April 6, Mw 6.1 earthquake with 80 per cent of buildings collapsed or severely damaged. The high vulnerability of predominantly ancient buildings and the propensity of site geology to amplify ground motion on the Holocene sediments of the Aterno river valley were unanimously thought as responsible for the huge destruction. To quantify site effects in the damaged zone of Onna and study source scaling over a wide magnitude range (2.0 ≤ ML ≤ 5.4), we have used recordings of 20 stations installed in Onna and other villages around L’Aquila. We analyse more than 1000 seismograms of 202 aftershocks occurring up to source-to-receiver distances of 50 km and infer site and source parameters by means of an inversion procedure. The source spectra inferred from the data inversion confirm the large variability in the high-frequency radiation already found by other authors for L’Aquila earthquakes, with Brune stress drops around 10 MPa at the highest magnitudes of the investigated range and spreading mostly between 0.1 and 1 MPa at smaller magnitudes. Moreover, the inversion of our data yields larger amplitudes of empirical transfer functions in the village of Onna confirming the role of the local geology on damage. The site functions of Onna show a common resonance mode around 2.7 Hz, with amplitudes attaining a factor of 4–5. Moreover, we find that the transfer function amplitude does not decrease below 2 in a large high-frequency band above the site resonant frequency, up to more than 10 Hz. This indicates a further broad-band contribution to the ground motion amplification in Onna. In a simulation of the main shock scenario applying the estimated source scaling to aftershock records, Onna results in the highest accelerations among the villages around L’Aquila. In distinct contrast, transfer functions close to unity in the entire frequency band are found for stations installed on harder rock formations (Mesozoic limestone and Pleistocene siltstone). Their scenario accelerations result in the smallest values, consistently with the lowest macroseismic intensities. PubDate: 2017-04-01
Authors:Duprat-Oualid S; Yamato P. Abstract: Inverted metamorphic sequences (IMS) are common features of main thrust systems on Earth. They exhibit an upwards continuous increase in peak temperature conditions and thereby constitute evidence of the close relationship between the thermal field evolution and tectonic processes. Heat advection and shear heating are known to allow the formation of such metamorphic signatures. Heat diffusion also plays an important role in temperature distribution on both sides of the thrust. Other advection processes such as erosion or accretion may also cause a local peak temperature inversion. Each one of these processes therefore affects the thermal field around the thrust. However, despite the crucial importance of all these processes for the interpretation of the inverted peak temperature signatures, their respective influences have never been quantified and compared all together. To address this issue, we propose an innovative coupled approach. (i) We use two-dimensional numerical models that simulate various thrust systems, allowing for a wide diversity of setups. To illustrate this study, we focus on intracontinental thrust systems for which all processes listed are likely to play a key role in the thermal evolution. We perform a parametric study including kinematic settings (i.e. convergence, erosion and accretion), thermal properties, mechanical strength and heat sources. (ii) Dimensionless numbers based on parameters are used to quantify the relative contributions of each process to the thermal budget evolution. Hence, the three thermal processes (i.e. heat diffusion, heat advection and shear heating) are compared with each other via three dimensionless combinations of the Peclet and Brinkman numbers: RDif, RAdv and RPro, respectively. Erosion and accretion are compared separately, based on a fourth dimensionless number Rea. (iii) We analytically examine the inverted peak temperature recorded along profiles that are perpendicular to the thrust zone defined in our numerical experiments. Each peak temperature profile presenting an inversion can then be characterized by a function of approximation involving six meaningful parameters: the location μFF and width σFF of the maximum peak temperature inversion, the characteristic peak temperature Tcte and gradient GLB beneath the inversion zone, and the inversion-related contrasts in the peak temperature ΔT and gradient ΔG. This coupled approach, linking numerical modelling and analytical treatment, allows to quantitatively interpret IMS in terms of the processes involved. The application of our method to intracontinental thrust systems demonstrates that shear heating and erosion support significant inversions, but that the relative contributions of each process have meaningful consequences. Our results reveal that competition between shear heating and heat diffusion on the one hand, and between erosion and accretion on the other hand have a high impact. In particular, the variability in the rock's mechanical strength strongly influences the features of peak temperature inversions. Consequently, none of these processes can be ignored. Our results highlight the major importance of the rheology of rocks in the thermal evolution of shear zones. Finally, our methodology is not only restricted to the analysis of numerical data but also constitutes a way of broad interest to analyse peak temperature signatures around any shear zone. PubDate: 2017-03-24
Authors:Evers LG; Wapenaar KK, Heaney KD, et al. Abstract: SummaryThe propagation of acoustic waves in the ocean strongly depends on the temperature. Low-frequency acoustic waves can penetrate the ocean down to depths where few in situ measurements are available. It is therefore attractive to obtain a measure of the deep ocean temperature from acoustic waves. The latter is especially true if the ambient acoustic noise field can be used instead of deterministic transient signals. In this study the acoustic velocity, and hence the temperature, is derived in an interferometric approach from hydrophone array recordings. The arrays were separated by over 125 km, near Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean, at a depth of 850 m. Furthermore, the dispersive characteristics of the deep ocean sound channel are resolved based on the retrieved lag times for different modes. In addition, it is shown how the resolution of the interferometric approach can be increased by cross correlating array beams rather than recordings from single-sensor pairs. The observed acoustic lag times between the arrays corresponds well to modelled values, based on full-wave modelling through best-known oceanic models. PubDate: 2017-02-21
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