In shallow water environments where the uppermost sediment layer is a fine-grained fabric (e.g. clay or silty-clay), the observed reverberation may be dominated by scattering from the sub-bottom. Here, reverberation predictions from normal mode and energy flux models are compared for the case where the scattering arises from a sub-bottom half-space under a fine-grained sediment layer. It is shown that in such an environment, the position of the angle of intromission, in addition to the angular dependence of the scattering kernel, is a factor controlling the reverberation and its vertical angle distribution. It is also shown that the reverberation from a sub-bottom horizon is typically governed by higher grazing angles than the case where the scattering occurs at the water–sediment interface. There was generally very close agreement between the models as a function of frequency (200–1600 Hz), layer thickness (0–8 m), and range (1–15 km). The model comparisons, showing some differences, illuminate the result of different approximations in the two approaches.
