Richard Hobbs

Seismic oceanography is a new interdisciplinary research area that brings together physical oceanographers and solid earth geophysicists to use seismic imaging methods developed by the hydrocarbons industry to understand the structure of oceans. The oceans are stratified by water density that is principally controlled by temperature and salinity. Where two water masses meet and mix the variations of temperature and salinity create very small acoustic impedance contrasts across the boundaries. By ensonifying the water layer with an acoustic pulse we can detect the energy reflected by these boundaries. Sophisticated time series analysis enhances these events so we can, for the first time, spatially visualise the boundaries with a lateral resolution of ~10m which is typically 3-orders of magnitude better than present ocean sampling methods. I will show results from a recently completed EC funded project (GO) where we investigated the interactions of the warm saline water flowing out of the Mediterranean Sea into the Gulf of Cadiz.

A pdf file with a poster illustrated the talk