Sound reflections in and under oceans

NOV 01, 1965

Since World War II, when many physicists contributed to the development of underwater acoustics, oceanographers have studied marine animals with sound‐scattering techniques and have used seismic reflections to map sedimentary layers deep beneath the ocean floor. The author presented the paper on which this article is based as an invited address at the 8th annual meeting of the Corporate Associates of the American Institute of Physics on September 30.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3046990

J. B. Hersey

Modern oceanography is founded on the curiosity and interest of the naturalist with a bent for things marine who, in pursuing understanding of plants and animals of the oceans, has appreciated the need for comparable understanding of their physical and chemical environment. It is also founded on the interest of the physicist who from time to time has been called in to help provide for a human need: to sound ocean depths for laying cables, to make more reliable fog signals, or to avoid icebergs or deal with submarines. Some of the latter have become interested in the oceans or in the physics of the earth beneath for their own sake. No matter what their individual background, main physicists have found fascination in the science of the ocean.

References

1. Constantin Chilowsky and Paul Langevin, “Echo ranging with electrostatic transducer”, French Patent No. 502, 913 (demandé May 29, 1916, délivré March 4, 1920, publié May 29, 1920).
2. Martin W. Johnson, “Sound as a tool in marine ecology, from data on biological noises and the deep‐scattering layer”, Sears Fd. J. Maritime Res. 1, 443–458 (1948).
3. Victor C. Anderson. “Wide‐band sound scattering in the deep‐scattering layer”. Technical Report No. 53‐36. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California (1953).
4. R. H. Backus and J. B. Hersey, “New evidence that migrating gas bubbles, probably the swim bladders of fish, are largely responsible for scattering layers on the continental rise south of New England”, Deep‐Sea Res. 1, 190–191 (1954).https://doi.org/DESRAY
5. J. B. Hersey, Richard H. Backus, and Jessica Hellwig, “Sound‐scattering spectra of deep‐scattering layers in the western North Atlantic ocean”, Deep‐Sea Res. 8, 196–210 (1962).https://doi.org/DESRAY
6. N. B. Marshall, “Swimbladder structure of deep‐sea fishes in relation to their systematics and biology”, Discovery Reports 31, 1–122 (Cambridge University Press, 1960).
7. D. H. Cushing and I. D. Richardson, “A record of plankton on the echo‐sounder”, J. Maritime Bio. Ass. (London) 35, 231–240 (1950).
8. Eric G. Barham, “Siphonophores and the deep‐scattering layer”, Science 140, 826–828 (1963).https://doi.org/SCIEAS
9. Henry R. Johnson, Richard H. Backus, J. B. Hersey, and David M. Owen, “Suspended echo‐sounder and camera studies of midwater sound scatterers”, Deep‐Sea Res. 3, 266–272 (1956).https://doi.org/DESRAY
10. Waloddi Weibull in Sound Explorations, Reports of the Swedish Deep‐Sea Expedition, edited by Hans Pettersson (1947–1948), Vol. IV, fasc. 1, 1–31.
11. J. B. Hersey and Maurice Ewing, “Seismic reflections from beneath the ocean floor”, Trans. Am. Geophysical Union 30, 5–14 (1949).https://doi.org/TAGUAT
12. J. B. Hersey, Harold E. Edgerton, Samuel O. Raymond, and Gary Hayward, “Pingers and thumpers advance deep‐sea exploration”, J. Instr. Soc. Am. 8, 72–77 (1961).
13. Elizabeth I. Bunce, “The Puerto Rico Trench”, Proceedings of the Upper Mantle Symposium in Ottawa, 1965 (to be published).

More about the Authors

J. B. Hersey. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Cape Cod.