Sounds of Undersea Gas Leaks

A passive acoustic method of detecting potentially environmentally disastrous gas leaks from pipelines, and methane naturally leaking from the seabed has been studied. Gas escape involves the formation and release of bubbles of different sizes. Each bubble of a given size emits a sound at a specific frequency. The traditional approach based on the determination of the bubble radius from the frequency of its signature passive acoustic emission by use of so-called Minnaert formula has a restricted area of applicability near the seabed. The point is that the inertial mass of the birthing bubble is markedly different from the one of a free bubble. It was shown that the bi-spherical coordinates provide separation of variables and are most suitable for analysis of volume oscillations of constrained bubble. The theoretical model for the bubble volume oscillations near the seabed has been proposed and an analytical solution has been derived.