The application of seismic oceanography to studying ocean water mass structure in the northeastern South China Sea

Seismic reflection method is usually used to explore the geological structure of underground. In the paper, by processing the data of a high resolution seismic survey line in the northeastern South China Sea, we obtained the subtle velocity structure and clear reflection images of seawater mass in the survey line. From the seismic profile, we can distinguish that the thermohaline structure of upper layer seawater in the northeast South China Sea is relatively steady. There isn't obvious intrusion of other water mass. But in the middle layer seawater, internal waves can be found from the seismic profile. The result accords with the research on physical oceanography in the northern South China Sea. Additionally, a reasonable data model has been designed to prove the feasibility of the seismic oceanography method; some opinions and suggestions are given, which will contribute to future research in seismic oceanography.