Acoustic sensing of gas seeps in the deep ocean with split-beam echosounders
When in the form of free gas in the water column, methane seeps emanating from the seabed are strong acoustic targets that are often detectable from surface vessels using echo sounders.In addition to detecting that a seep is present at some location, it is also desirable to characterize the nature o...
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ftuninhampshire:oai:scholars.unh.edu:ccom-1833 2023-05-15T17:12:02+02:00 Acoustic sensing of gas seeps in the deep ocean with split-beam echosounders Weber, Thomas C. Jerram, Kevin W. Mayer, Larry A. 2012-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://scholars.unh.edu/ccom/833 https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1833&context=ccom unknown University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository https://scholars.unh.edu/ccom/833 https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1833&context=ccom © 2012 Acoustical Society of America Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping gas seeps Gulf of Mexico Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology text 2012 ftuninhampshire 2023-01-30T21:33:15Z When in the form of free gas in the water column, methane seeps emanating from the seabed are strong acoustic targets that are often detectable from surface vessels using echo sounders.In addition to detecting that a seep is present at some location, it is also desirable to characterize the nature of the seep in terms of its morphology and flux rates. Here, we examine how much we can learn about seeps in the deep (> 1000 m) northern Gulf of Mexico using narrow-band split-beam echo sounders operating at fixed frequencies (18 kHz and 38 kHz).Methane seeps in this region are deeper than the methane hydrate stability zone, implying that bubbles of free gas form hydrate rinds that allow them to rise further in the water column than they otherwise would. While this behavior may aid in the classification of gas types in the seep, it is possible that the presence of hydrate rinds may also change the acoustic response of the bubbles and thereby make flux rate estimates more challenging. These and other aspects of seep characterization will be discussed. Text Methane hydrate University of New Hampshire: Scholars Repository |
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University of New Hampshire: Scholars Repository |
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ftuninhampshire |
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topic |
gas seeps Gulf of Mexico Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology |
spellingShingle |
gas seeps Gulf of Mexico Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology Weber, Thomas C. Jerram, Kevin W. Mayer, Larry A. Acoustic sensing of gas seeps in the deep ocean with split-beam echosounders |
topic_facet |
gas seeps Gulf of Mexico Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology |
description |
When in the form of free gas in the water column, methane seeps emanating from the seabed are strong acoustic targets that are often detectable from surface vessels using echo sounders.In addition to detecting that a seep is present at some location, it is also desirable to characterize the nature of the seep in terms of its morphology and flux rates. Here, we examine how much we can learn about seeps in the deep (> 1000 m) northern Gulf of Mexico using narrow-band split-beam echo sounders operating at fixed frequencies (18 kHz and 38 kHz).Methane seeps in this region are deeper than the methane hydrate stability zone, implying that bubbles of free gas form hydrate rinds that allow them to rise further in the water column than they otherwise would. While this behavior may aid in the classification of gas types in the seep, it is possible that the presence of hydrate rinds may also change the acoustic response of the bubbles and thereby make flux rate estimates more challenging. These and other aspects of seep characterization will be discussed. |
format |
Text |
author |
Weber, Thomas C. Jerram, Kevin W. Mayer, Larry A. |
author_facet |
Weber, Thomas C. Jerram, Kevin W. Mayer, Larry A. |
author_sort |
Weber, Thomas C. |
title |
Acoustic sensing of gas seeps in the deep ocean with split-beam echosounders |
title_short |
Acoustic sensing of gas seeps in the deep ocean with split-beam echosounders |
title_full |
Acoustic sensing of gas seeps in the deep ocean with split-beam echosounders |
title_fullStr |
Acoustic sensing of gas seeps in the deep ocean with split-beam echosounders |
title_full_unstemmed |
Acoustic sensing of gas seeps in the deep ocean with split-beam echosounders |
title_sort |
acoustic sensing of gas seeps in the deep ocean with split-beam echosounders |
publisher |
University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://scholars.unh.edu/ccom/833 https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1833&context=ccom |
genre |
Methane hydrate |
genre_facet |
Methane hydrate |
op_source |
Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping |
op_relation |
https://scholars.unh.edu/ccom/833 https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1833&context=ccom |
op_rights |
© 2012 Acoustical Society of America |
_version_ |
1766068786490769408 |