Application of parametric acoustics for shallow-water near-surface geophysical investigations

Abstract

Shallow-water near-surface geophysical investigations were carried out, under two different scenarios - one to assess the status of a pipeline in the West coast and the other to assess the effect of water-injection dredging in the East coast of India. In both these investigations, Parametric Sediment Echo Sounder (SES-2000), a system developed by Innomar Technologie GmbH, which makes use of the parametric acoustical effect, was used. In the former case, profiles were taken across a pipeline at regular intervals to determine whether it was buried or exposed. The parametric system produces a 2D geo-acoustic section in which the pipe is indicated by a hyperbolic curve. The exposed height or buried depth of the pipeline at a crossing is then estimated. This investigation could, also, reveal the geomorphologic changes in the immediate vicinity of the pipeline. In the latter case, parametric acoustics was utilized to provide supplementary results for the assessment of water-injection dredging. Parametric acoustic data could expose the abrupt termination of certain near-seabed layer interfaces and sediment accumulations along steep slope, quite convincingly. SES-2000 proved to be handy to investigate the near-surface sub-seabed, especially in areas where conventional or popular methods find practical difficulties to be carried out.