Notes: Reiter, E.C., Toksoz, M.N. and Purdy, G.M. 1992. A semblance-guided median filter. Geophysical Prospecting41, 15–41.A slowness selective median filter based on information from a local set of traces is described and implemented. The filter is constructed in two steps, the first being an estimation of a preferred slowness and the second, the selection of a median or trimmed mean value to replace the original data point. A symmetric window of traces defining the filter aperture is selected about each trace to be filtered and the filter applied repeatedly to each time point. The preferred slowness is determined by scanning a range of linear moveouts within the user-specified slowness passband. Semblance is computed for each trial slowness and the preferred slowness selected from the peak semblance value. Data points collected along this preferred slowness are then sorted from lowest to highest and in the case of a pure median filter, the middle point(s) selected to replace the original data point. The output of the filter is therefore quite insensitive to large amplitude noise bursts, retaining the well-known beneficial properties of a traditional 1D median filter. Energy which is either incoherent over the filter aperture or lies outside the slowness passband, may be additionally suppressed by weighting the filter output by the measured peak semblance.This approach may be used as a velocity filter to estimate coherent signal within a specified slowness passband and reject coherent energy outside this range. For applications of this type, other velocity estimators may be used in place of our semblance measure to provide improved velocity estimation and better filter performance. The filter aperture may also be extended to provide increased velocity estimation, but will result in additional lateral smearing of signal. We show that, in addition to a velocity filter, our approach may be used to improve signal-to-noise ratios in noisy data. The median filter tends to suppress the amplitude of random background noise and semblance weighting may be used to reduce the amplitude of background noise further while enhancing coherent signal.We apply our method to vertical seismic profile data to separate upgoing and downgoing wavefields, and also to large-offset ocean bottom hydrophone data to enhance weak refracted and post-critically reflected energy.

Notes: Abstract Analysis of Sea Beam bathymetry along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between 24°00′ N and 30°40′ N reveals the nature and scale of the segmentation of this slow-spreading center. Except for the Atlantis Transform, there are no transform offsets along this 800-km-long portion of the plate boundary. Instead, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is offset at intervals of 10–100 km by nontransform discontinuities, usually located at local depth maxima along the rift valley. At these discontinuities, the horizontal shear between offset ridge segments is not accommodated by a narrow, sustained transform-zone. Non-transform discontinuities along the MAR can be classified according to their morphology, which is partly controlled by the distance between the offset neovolcanic zones, and their spatial and temporal stability. Some of the non-transform discontinuities are associated with off-axis basins which integrate spatially to form discordant zones on the flanks of the spreading center. These basins may be the fossil equivalents of the terminal lows which flank the neovolcanic zone at the ends of each segment. The off-axis traces, which do not lie along small circles about the pole of opening of the two plates, reflect the migration of the discontinuities along the spreading center. The spectrum of rift valley morphologies ranges from a narrow, deep, hourglass-shaped valley to a wide valley bounded by low-relief rift mountains. A simple classification of segment morphology involves two types of segments. Long and narrow segments are found preferentially on top of the long-wavelength, along-axis bathymetric high between the Kane and Atlantis Transforms. These segments are associated with circular mantle Bouguer anomalies which are consistent with focused mantle upwelling beneath the segment mid-points. Wide, U-shaped segments in cross-section are preferentially found in the deep part of the long-wavelength, along-axis depth profile. These segments do not appear to be associated with circular mantle Bouguer anomalies, indicating perhaps a more complex pattern of mantle upwelling and/or crustal structure. Thus, the long-recognized bimodal distribution of segment morphology may be associated with different patterns of mantle upwelling and/or crustal structure. We propose that the range of observed, first-order variations in segment morphology reflects differences in the flow pattern, volume and temporal continuity of magmatic upwelling at the segment scale. However, despite large first-order differences, all segments display similar intra-segment, morphotectonic variations. We postulate that the intra-segment variability represents differences in the relative importance of volcanism and tectonism along strike away from a zone of enhanced magma upwelling within each segment. The contribution of volcanism to the morphology will be more important near the shallowest portion of the rift valley within each segment, beneath which we postulate that upwelling of magma is enhanced, than beneath the ends of the segment. Conversely, the contribution of tectonic extension to the morphology will become more important toward the spreading center discontinuities. Variations in magmatic budget along the strike of a segment will result in along-axis variations in crustal structure. Segment mid-points may coincide with regions of highest melt production and thick crust, and non-transform discontinuities with regions of lowest melt production and thin crust. This hypothesis is consistent with available seismic and gravity data. The rift valley of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is in general an asymmetric feature. Near segment mid-points, the rift valley is usually symmetric but, away from the segment mid-points, one side of the rift valley often consists of a steep, faulted slope while the other side forms a more gradual ramp. These observations suggest that half-grabens, rather than full-grabens, are the fundamental building blocks of the rift valley. They also indicate that the pattern of faulting varies along strike at the segment scale, and may be a consequence of the three-dimensional, thermo-mechanical structure of segments associated with enhanced mantle upwelling beneath their mid-points.

Notes: Abstract A trial experiment proves the power and practicality of using both sources and receivers near the ocean floor to make precise measurements of deep (∼6000 m) ocean sediment velocity structure. A digitally recording ocean bottom hydrophone receiver operating at a sampling rate of 1800 Hz recorded clear arrivals with bubble pulse frequencies of ∼500 Hz from 41b. explosive charges detonated at depths of 5500m along a 4 km long wide angle reflection profile. It is shown that corrections for changes in source depth may be computed without approximation and without prior knowledge of the velocity structure. The experiment was located at longitude 56° W in the trough of the Kane Fracture Zone. The velocity structure of the 1 km thick sedimentary section reveals a 310 m thickness of 3 km s−1 material overlying igneous basement.

Notes: Abstract This paper presents a series of eleven maps of the bathymetry of a 900 km long section of the crestal region of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Along with a twelfth key map, this series defines the morphology of fifteen discrete spreading segments and shows convincingly that no transform faults exist between the Kane and Atlantis fracture zones. The publication of these multi beam bathymetry data with a contour interval of 50 m and at a scale of 30 inches per degree of longitude is intended to allow easy access by a broad community of marine earth scientists to this unique and powerful data set.

Notes: Abstract A seismic reflection profiling system consisting of a 264 m long, deep-towed, 15-element, end-fire, vertical array and a 40 cubic inch airgun was successfully used to profile a sediment pond in the trough of the inactive segment of the Kane Fracture Zone close to it's intersection with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 24° N. The increased signal to noise ratio achieved with the array demonstrates that it is a useful tool for detailed seismic profiling in areas of rough topography in the deep ocean.

Notes: Abstract A 20 km long high resolution seismic reflection profile was carried out approximately 300 km southwest of Bermuda. The data were collected using a small airgun sound source and a single hydrophone receiver towed ∼100 m above the seafloor at a depth of ∼5400 m. Comparisons with nearby conventional seismic reflection profiles show the considerable improvement of resolving power provided by this method, particularly of the basement morphology beneath the 700 m thick sediment column. The data were recorded digitally and selected data examples show the enhancement provided by filtering, stacking, source deconvolution and corrections for hydrophone motion. The precise picture of basement topography that results from this data is compared with deep tow bathymetry profiles of the present day mid-Atlantic Ridge flanks, and is seen to be remarkably similar.

Notes: Abstract A new seismic source for carrying out high resolution measurements of deep ocean crustal structure has been constructed and successfully used in a number of ocean bottom refraction experiments on the Mid Atlantic Ridge near 23° N. The source is towed within 100 m of the ocean floor on a conventional 0.68″ coaxial cable and is capable of firing, upon command from the research vessel, up to 48 individual 2.3 kg explosive charges. The explosive used was commercially available Penta-Erythritol-Tetra Nitrate (PETN) that was activated by 14.9 gm m−1 Primacord and DuPont E-97 electrical detonators. For safety reasons each detonator was fitted with a pressure switch that maintained a short until the source was at depth in excess of approximately 300 m. In addition, a mechanical protector isolated the detonator from the main charge and was only removed by the physical release of the explosive from the source package. These and other safety precautions resulted in several misfires but three experiments were successfully completed during the summer of 1985 at source depths of 3000–4000 m.

Notes: Abstract We present a gridded Sea Beam bathymetric map of a 5100 km2 area between 9° and 10° N on the East Pacific Rise (included as a color separate accompanying this issue). The raw bathymetric data are renavigated using a technique for calculating smooth adjustments to navigation that incorporates absolute constraints from satellite fixes and acoustically-located explosive shots, and relative constraints from the misfit of bathymetric data at ship track crossovers. We describe a back-projection technique for gridding the bathymetric data that incorporates an approximation for the power distribution within a narrow-beam echo sounding system and accounts for the variable uncertainties associated with multi-beam data. The nodal separation of the resulting map is ~ 80 m in both latitude and longitude, and the sampling of grid points within a 60 × 85 km2 region is in excess of 99%. A formal analysis of variance is applied to the gridded bathymetric data. For each grid point, the difference between the variance of data from within a track versus data from between tracks provides an upper bound on the magnitude of bathymetric misfits arising from navigational errors. The renavigation results in an 88% reduction in this quantity. We also examine the effects of renavigation on the misfit of magnetic and gravity data at crossovers and compare our results with other bathymetric surveys. A striking feature of the final bathymetric map is the sinuous regional shape of the rise axis. In plan view, the local trend of morphology sometimes varies by up to 15° and the distances separating changes in morphological trend are about 10–20 km. In cross section the slopes of the rise flanks are notably asymmetric and show some correlation with the offset of the axial magmatic system as detected by seismic methods.