Vertical seismic profiling on the sea shelf

Results of a numerical experiment on vertical seismic profiling of the sea bottom on the shelf are presented. The results are obtained by analyzing the acoustic fields in the shelf area with the use of both hydroacoustic and seismic bottom sources of radiation. The influence of both transmission depth and source type on the efficiency of seismic wave excitation in the bottom is investigated. The formation of the vertical wave hodographs and its dependence on the acoustic parameters and structure of the bottom in the oceanic shelf region is analyzed. A high sensitivity of the vertical wave hodographs to variations in the parameters of the bottom medium is revealed. For the layered bottom model, the possibility of estimating the positions of layer boundaries in depth and the velocities of waves within the layers is demonstrated.