Chirp Subbottom Research Articles

Chirp (2–7-kHz) echo characters of the South Korea Plateau, East Sea: styles of mass movement and sediment gravity flow

The South Korea Plateau is a complex of ridges, seamount chains, troughs and a basin. Detailed analysis of 12 019 line-km Chirp (2–7-kHz) subbottom profiles from the South Korea Plateau and the eastern continental slope of Korea reveals a distinctive zonal distribution of echo types depending systematically on seafloor morphology. Pelagites/hemipelagites (type I-2) and basement highs (type III-1) prevail on the ridge summits, seamount chains and the upper to middle part of the eastern continental slope of Korea, and are commonly bounded downslope by creeps (type III-3) and slides/slumps (type IV-1) that occur extensively over the entire slope areas of the ridges, seamount chains and eastern continental slope. The mass-movement deposits change downslope to debrites and turbidites (types II, III-2, IV-2 and IV-3) in the troughs and Onnuri Basin, suggesting successive downslope evolution from slide and slump to debris flow and turbidity current. The voluminous creeps, slides and slumps over the entire slope areas of the plateau and eastern continental slope, deeper than 300 m in water depth, were most likely generated by frequent seismic shakings.

Chirp sub-bottom profiler source signature design and field testing

Chirp sub-bottom profilers are marine sonar systems which use a highly repeatable source signature to facilitate the acquisition of correlated data with decimetre vertical resolution in the top 20–30 m of sediments. Source signatures can be readily developed and implemented, but an applicable methodology for assessing resolution and attenuation characteristics of these wide-band systems did not exist. Methodologies are developed and applied to seven contrasting source signatures which occupy the same frequency band, but differ in their Envelope and Instantaneous Frequency functions. For the Chirp source signatures tested, a Sine-Squared envelope function is shown to produce seismic data with the optimum resolution and penetration characteristics.

An attenuation-based sediment classification technique using Chirp sub-bottom profiler data and laboratory acoustic analysis

A remote sediment classification technique based on attenuation measurements from Chirp sub-bottom profiler data is described. This differs from previously published work in that attenuation measurements are obtained for each stratigraphic unit within a complex, thinly interbedded sedimentary sequence. Compressional wave attenuation measurements are obtained for a wide variety of lithologies, including muds, silts, sands, clayey sands, silty clays and gravel lags, with grain sizes ranging from 8 Phi to -4 Phi. In addition, attenuation measurements from sub-bottom profiler data were calibrated against laboratory acoustic measurements of vibracores and seabed samples from corresponding geographic locations, under simulated in-situ conditions using a Pulse Tube method. We adapt an instantaneous frequency matching method using a causal attenuation filter to model the decay of the Chirp transmitted waveform. From this modelling, a relationship between t* (a causal attenuation operator) and change in instantaneous frequency is established. The Hilbert transform is used to extract instantaneous frequency information from Chirp seismic, which is used to derive attenuation information for selected individual stratigraphic layers imaged by the sub-bottom profiler. This paper draws attention to the limitations in comparing attenuation measurements derived from Chirp sub-bottom profiler data against previously published literature on experimental attenuation measurements, which are limited by the wide variance of these data, and the difficulty in finding a meaningful best fit to these data. This demonstrates the importance of calibrating remote sediment classification observations using complimentary acoustic analysis of seabed samples to generate a site-specific geoacoustic database. A positive correlation between laboratory and sub-bottom profiler attenuation measurements was obtained, with a correlation coefficient of 0.885. Poorly sorted gravels with a mixed lithic and biogenic pebble component are characterised by very high attenuation with values of Q from 4 to 19. These sediments are considerably coarser-grained than those typically described in previously published experimental studies.

TheInvincible(1758) site-an integrated geophysical assessment

Chirp sub-bottom profiler and repeat sidescan sonar imaging of the Invincible wreck site (1758) in the Solent (U.K.), interpretation, and implications for management of the site.

Reflection coefficient calculation from marine high resolution seismic reflection (Chirp) data and application to an archaeological case study

Chirp sub-bottom profilers produce high-resolution images of the near-surface. An attribute of the sea-bed reflection in chirp data are fluctuations in polarity between adjacent traces. Two models are proposed and presented to explain this: the first incorporates changes in an acoustic impedance gradient at the sea bed; the second uses changes in the thickness of the uppermost sediment layer. Mixing of adjacent traces produces a consistent polarity for the sea-bed reflector. Reflection coefficients are calculated, using amplitude information derived from single-traces, and polarity information from trace mixing, with application to a marine archaeological case study. The reflection coefficient calculated for the top of a buried 18th century wooden wreck is -0.26.