Quantitative Assessment of the Slope Resolution of Seafloor Mapping Systems

The depth to the seafloor and the sediment thickness were observed with the SIO-MPL Deep Tow system from an altitude of 100 m on the western flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near the FAMOUS area, 37 N, providing what is probably the most appropriate high resolution data set available at this time for...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Macdonald, Ken C.
Other Authors: CALIFORNIA UNIV SANTA BARBARA MARINE SCIENCE INST
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1992
Subjects:
Physical and Dynamic Oceanography
*MAPPING
*OCEAN BOTTOM
RESOLUTION
POWER SPECTRA
TERRAIN
HIGH RESOLUTION
DEPTH
SLOPE
ATLANTIC OCEAN
NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
ABYSSAL ZONES
ROUGHNESS
SEDIMENTS
PONDS
OCEAN RIDGES
DATA BASES
THICKNESS
SURFACE ROUGHNESS
SONAR IMAGES
Mid-Atlantic Ridge
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA246158
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA246158
Description
Summary:The depth to the seafloor and the sediment thickness were observed with the SIO-MPL Deep Tow system from an altitude of 100 m on the western flank of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near the FAMOUS area, 37 N, providing what is probably the most appropriate high resolution data set available at this time for roughness studies of the abyssal hill terrain of the Western North Atlantic. We have re-analyzed the original Deep Tow sonar record at a 3-m horizontal sample spacing. Along the MAR Deep Tow profile, individual sediment ponds of thickness up to 15 m are detected, although approximately half the profile has less than 1 m of sediment cover. A histogram of the original data shows that 77 percent of all slopes are less than 22 degrees, but 3 percent are greater then 71 degrees. The fall-off of the power spectrum is consistent with a fractal dimension D = 1. 0 over the wavelengths 8 km to 10 m.

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