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Bottom-Penetrating Sounders
Bottom-Penetrating Sounders are a form of acoustic technology used for mapping both the surface of the ocean floor and structures of different density below the floor. Rocks, sunken ships, mud, sand and masses of animals all have different densities. Bottom-Penetrating Sounders reveal these features as discrete images. This is useful not only for the study of physical attributes of the ocean floor, but also for studying habitats, which aids in determining the numbers of organisms in a given area.
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| An airgun array, such as this, shoots compressed air that makes noise used to map the sea floor and what lies beneath it. (Discovery of Sound in the Sea) |
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| Reflection of sound waves off of hard surfaces and back up to a receiver can be used to accurately determine the shape of the sea floor. (Discovery of Sound in the Sea) |
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| Refraction of sound waves are good for more accurate study of what lies below the surface because sound travels through, and bounces off, different seafloor sediments in very different ways. (Discovery of Sound in the Sea) |
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| An image created by profiling below the seafloor (called sub-bottom profiling) using a bottom-penetrating sounder. (NOAA Ocean Explorer) |
Click on the link below to see what Census projects use this technology:
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