The application of nonlinear acoustics to seismic profiling, exploration, and sedimentary geophysics has long been recognized as having great potential, due to the unique opportunities for high resolution measurements. These measurements, in turn, open new avenues for theoretical developments in areas of sediment characterization and acoustic modeling for scattering and propagation. The present paper reviews the utilization of a parametric research tool in sub‐bottom profiling experiments conducted offshore southern California and Oahu, Hawaii. An instrument capable of parametric operation in the 1–5 kHz band with a nominal 3° beamwidth was used in a transient mode to generate a Ricker wavelet with a 0.8‐ms duration. The results of normal incidence sub‐bottom profiling are presented to demonstrate the precision mapping of bedrock stratigraphy, including tilted bedding, faulting, the presence of discrete inhomogeneities, etc. Results on the profiling of the unconsolidated sediment layers are also presented, demonstrating the existence and quantification of microlayering. The stochastic properties of the sedimentary microlaying are computed from the data for use in an acoustic scattering model. [Work supported by the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research.]