Recent in situ and laboratory determinations of density and velocity of sound in fine-grained, high-porosity sediments of the sea floor off San Diego, California, reveal several stations at which the velocity of sound in the sediment was 2% to 3% less than the velocity of sound in the water just above the bottom. Comparison of the compressibility of the sediment computed in two ways and of the ratio: velocity in sediment/velocity in water computed and actually measured indicates that these high porosity sediments are approximately described acoustically by the velocity formula which applies to a suspension. The theoretical explanation for this phenomena was apparently made by R. J. Urick, [J. Appl. Phys. 18, 983 (1947); J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 20, 283 (1948)] and R. J. Urick and W. S. Ament [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 21, 115 (1949)].
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Edwiwn L. Hamilton (1956) studied this question.