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Observations and Causes of Ocean and Seafloor Noise at Ultra-Low and Very-Low Frequencies

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Natural Physical Sources of Underwater Sound

Abstract

Although the term noise connotes troublesome phenomena that are to be eliminated in any useful experiment, seafloor seismo-acoustic noise is very highly colored and physically interesting. Modern seafloor seismic and acoustic instrumentation has largely eliminated instrumental effects in noise measurements and a clear picture of the behavior of Earth noise has emerged. In this paper, we present hypotheses for the generation and propagation of seafloor noise over a very broad frequency band; future and planned experiments will test these ideas. Furthermore, the quantification of seafloor noise, perhaps surprisingly, provides new insights into oceanic and geodynamic processes. The exploitation of these measurements has made new tools available for oceanographic exploration.

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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Orcutt, J.A., Cox, C.S., Kibblewhite, A.C., Kuperman, W.A., Schmidt, H. (1993). Observations and Causes of Ocean and Seafloor Noise at Ultra-Low and Very-Low Frequencies. In: Kerman, B.R. (eds) Natural Physical Sources of Underwater Sound. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1626-8_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1626-8_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4709-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-1626-8

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