The sub-bottom reflecting layers frequently crop out, and the overlying sediments thicken and thin, revealing apparently noticeable variations in the rate of accumulation of sediments. Outcropping of sub-bottom layers on the steeper slopes indicate slumping, while the deepening of the sub-bottom reflecting horizon in valleys indicates a greater rate of deposition. High-frequency sound is normally strongly attenuated by transmission through sediments. The observation of sub-bottom reflections with high-frequency sound pulses (12 kc) indicates (1) that the surface sediment is uniform and is of low density, and (2) that a fairly sharp density change occurs beneath this surface layer of low-density material. In areas such as the outer ridge from 22° to 29° N. Lat. and the southern Bermuda Rise, it can be safely assumed that the upper layer consists of deep-sea red clay. Density measurements on red clay have indicated values of 1.25 to 1.45. The lack of sub-bottom reflections over the parts of the abyssal plains close to the continents is attributed to the numerous sand and silt layers found in the cores which reflect most of the sound. The occurrence of good reflections beneath the outer edges of the abyssal plains could be explained by either assuming that for a long geologic time no sand-or silt-carrying turbidity current has reached this area, or that red clay is deposited here much faster than elsewhere. An extremely prominent sub-bottom reflector observed over a vast area of the east tropical Pacific has been identified by coring with a 10-cm thick bed of white, vitreous ash. This suggests that sub-bottom reflections found elsewhere may, in general, represent ash horizons. This, of course, would presuppose ash falls so vast that some record should have been preserved on land. There is no reason to assume that there is but a single cause of deep-sea sub-bottom echoes. The widespread occurrence of the sub-bottom interface on the deeper isolated rises may be of great importance if it be interpreted as evidence of a sudden change in sedimentation resulting in a change from higher- to lower-density sediment. It is just conceivable, however, that some unstable diagenetic process may cause a sudden increase in compaction at a depth corresponding to the sub-bottom reflection. The sub-bottom reflections in depths of 2600 fathoms on the southern Bermuda Rise and the outer ridge is about .02 second after the bottom echo, and this indicates a layer about 10 fathoms thick. At a rate of deposition of 1 cm/1000 years this change in sediment type would have occurred 20 million years ago.