On: “Causes of compressional wave anisotropy in carbonate bearing deep sea sediment” by R. L. Carlson, C. H. Schaftenaar, and R. P. Moore (GEOPHYSICS, 49, 525– 532, May, 1984).
In the course of presenting data on the application of linear regression, the authors included in Figure 1 an equation representing the regression of wet‐bulk density on porosity in the form [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are wet‐bulk and grain densities, respectively, in [Formula: see text]. Based on the data of the selected samples shown in Figure 1, they have inferred a grain density of [Formula: see text], and a fluid density of [Formula: see text], not unreasonable values for a brine‐saturated calcareous sediment. However, it is incorrect to draw such inferences from this regression equation without the qualification that the independent variable, in this case porosity, is error free. Based on the porosity values shown in Table 1 (see my Table 1) those data are indeed subject to error.