  Two classes of natural solid media (glacial ice and salt domes) are under
consideration as media in which to deploy instruments for detection of
neutrinos with energy >1e18 eV. Though insensitive to 1e11 to 1e16 eV neutrinos
for which observatories (e.g., AMANDA and IceCube) that utilize optical
Cherenkov radiation detectors are designed, radio and acoustic methods are
suited for searches for the very low fluxes of neutrinos with energies >1017
eV. This is because, due to the very long attenuation lengths of radio and
acoustic waves in ice and salt, detection modules can be spaced very far apart.
In this paper, I calculate the absorption and scattering coefficients as a
function of frequency and grain size for acoustic waves in glacial ice and salt
domes and show that experimental measurements on laboratory samples and in
glacial ice and salt domes are consistent with theory. For South Pole ice with
grain size 0.2 cm at -51 degrees C, scattering lengths are calculated to be
2000 km and 25 km at 10 kHz and 30 kHz, respectively, and the absorption length
is calculated to be 9 km at frequencies above 100 Hz. For NaCl (rock salt) with
grain size 0.75 cm, scattering lengths are calculated to be 120 km and 1.4 km
at 10 kHz and 30 kHz, and absorption lengths are calculated to be 30,000 km and
3300 km at 10 kHz and 30 kHz. Existing measurements are consistent with theory.
For ice, absorption is the limiting factor; for salt, scattering is the
limiting factor.
