Page 14: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2016)

Case Study

New T eory of Deep-Ocean Sound

Waves may Aid Tsunami Detection

Surface waves can trigger powerful sound waves that race through the deep ocean, study suggests.

By Jennifer Chu, MIT News Of? ce coustic-gravity waves are very long sound waves their wake, at any water depth. They are typically triggered by that cut through the deep ocean at the speed of violent events in the ocean, including underwater earthquakes, sound. These lightning-quick currents can sweep explosions, landslides, and even meteorites, and they carry in-

Aup water, nutrients, salts, and any other particles in formation about these events around the world in a matter of

Without compressibility and gravity, we cannot describe low-frequency sound waves correctly,”

Usama Kadri says. “This is one of the reasons why researchers have mostly overlooked acoustic- gravity waves.” (Illustration Credit: Christine Daniloff/MIT)

April 2016

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