Inversions for sediment parameters using geophone and tetrahedral array measurements in the New England Mud Patch

Abstract

Measurements of acoustic pressure and particle velocity were made during the Seabed Characterization Experiment (SCEx) in the New England Mud Patch south of Cape Cod in about 70 meters of water. The University of Rhode Island and Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution deployed the “geosled” with a four-element geophone array, a tetrahedral array of four hydrophones, and several hydrophone receive units (SHRUs). In addition, a new low frequency source, interface Wave Sediment Profiler (iWaSP) was deployed to excite interface waves (Scholte waves). The iWaSP system consists of a source to generate the interface wave and a four-element accelerometer receive array. Results of inversions for geoacoustic parameters will be presented. Arrival time dispersion from broadband sources (SUS and CSS) and iWaSP will be used for these inversions. Both p-wave and Scholte wave arrivals will be investigated using the geophone and hydrophone data. Seismic data collected at the location will be used to constrain the model parameters in the inversion. Sediment data from cores, other in-situ measurements and inversions using other types of data will be used to compare and validate our inversions. [Work supported by Office of Naval Research.]