“…A number of different approaches to characterization via backscatter have been developed (Canepa and Pace, 2000;Fonseca et al, 2009;Calder, 2005, 2007;Hamilton and Parnum, 2011;Hughes Clarke, 1994;Pace and Gao, 1988;Preston, 2009), with the primary aim of acoustic segmentation; that is, mapping discrete geographical areas of the seafloor with the same acoustic signature Preston et al, 2004). These techniques have also been used to attempt to extract different properties from the backscatter data, including physical (i.e., porosity), acoustic (attenuation), or geotechnical (elastic and shear strength moduli) properties, and also the general morphology at different scales Hughes Clarke et al, 1993;Mayer, 2011;Mayer et al, 2007).…”