Hi all,

I'm a WWII Navy researcher. I have no expertise in the sound transmission. I realize that it's not possible to obtain a correct value, however I would be satisfied even with a conservative range of a depth charge transmission.

Location: North Sea (35 g salt per liter of water)
Temp of water: ~15 C
Depth the explosions occurred on: 10-20m
Depth of the seabed: 30-40m
Depth charge: 100-250lb

What do you think would be a radius of the sound transmission which could be picked up by a submarine's noise detector (sub submerged) or even by "ear"; 2, 5, 10-30 km? If the data provided is not sufficient, tell me what other info I have to find out in order to get a "less faulty" answer?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Regards,
Teekay

My guess: wide over 30km. In air, you would hear it over 10 km away, so 30km should be easy in water.

Kursk explosion was maybe 10 times as powerful and was registered over 1000km away, not by sound, but by far less sensitive seismometers!

By ears: I understand hydrophone+amplifier+headset. This would be about as sensitive as any signal processing for an explosion. Signal processing would increase the sensitivity for periodic sounds like propellers or perfectly known sounds, like the ping emitted by the own sonar. Adding the signals from many hydrophones would improve sensitivity a bit.

Thanks very much for your reply, Enthalpy.