Acoustic properties and their frequency dependence in fine-grained sediments: a geoacoustic probe experiment

Qingfeng HUA; Yongqi LIN; Xiangmei MENG; Jingqiang WANG; Lei SUN; Guanbao LI

doi:10.1007/s00343-026-5283-5

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Acoustic properties and their frequency dependence in fine-grained sediments: a geoacoustic probe experiment

Updated：2026-09-24

- Acoustic properties and their frequency dependence in fine-grained sediments: a geoacoustic probe experiment
- Journal of Oceanology and Limnology Pages: 1-15(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Key Laboratory of Marine Geology and Metallogency, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, China
  2.Laboratory of Marine Geology, Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao 266061, China
- Author bio：
  
  gbli@fio.org.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s00343-026-5283-5
  CLC：
- Received：28 July 2025，
  
  Online First：24 September 2026，
- Accepted：
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HUA Qingfeng,LIN Yongqi,MENG Xiangmei,et al.Acoustic properties and their frequency dependence in fine-grained sediments: a geoacoustic probe experiment[J].Journal of Oceanology and Limnology,
DOI：

HUA Qingfeng,LIN Yongqi,MENG Xiangmei,et al.Acoustic properties and their frequency dependence in fine-grained sediments: a geoacoustic probe experiment[J].Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, DOI：.

摘要

Abstract

The acoustic properties of fine-grained sediments have recently attracted increasing attention from the scientific community. Understanding the relationships between these properties and frequency is crucial for advancing the fundamental theory of sediment acoustics and its practical applications. An in-situ acoustic measurement system

namely

the geoacoustic probe

was developed for determining the broadband acoustic properties of seafloor sediment

and an experiment was conducted in the muddy area of the Zhujiang (Pearl) River estuary in Guangdong

South China. To calibrate the geoacoustic probe

measurements were made with a sound speed profiler in near-bottom seawater for comparison. In-situ measurements were subsequently performed at 28 frequencies ranging 5–200 kHz in clayey silt sediment. The speed of sound ratio and attenuation were calculated using interreceiver correlation and linear fitting methods. The calculated speeds of sound ratios were consistently lower than 1 and generally linearly increased with increasing frequency. In contrast

the attenuation in fine-grained sediment was less than that in sandy sediment

with an increase in

1.36

dependence with increasing frequency. The measured acoustic properties approached those based on viscous grain shearing theory

revealing suitable agreement with the predicted values

except for a few attenuation measurements at the end of the frequency band.

关键词

Keywords

references

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