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Bathymetry

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The mapping of bathymetry (or depth to the sea floor) provides base maps for USGS studies as well as for other federal, state and local agencies. Mapping the bathymetry of the coast and shallow portion of the U.S. is important because these areas are used for recreation, transportation, and waste disposal; contain most of the currently harvested fisheries resources; provide habitat for juvenile and endangered species; are valued for their aesthetics; and are most affected by human activities.

Other related USGS websites:
National Mapping Information

Project Information

Educational Materials

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Items below are listed from most recently updated to least recently updated.

These are results 1 through 25 of 178 matches.

Educational Materials
Equipment Used in Marine Geology Research

Description: Description and links to information on nine types of marine geology research equipment used by the USGS Western Region Coastal & Marine Geology Team
updated: 2009-07-02 pages include:

Publication
General Information Product 57: South San Francisco Bay, California

Description: The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the California Coastal Conservancy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, mapped the floor of south San Francisco Bay and adjoining land using single-beam sonar and airborne lidar (light detection and ranging). To learn more, visit http://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/2007/2987/.
updated: 2009-06-17 pages include:

Research Project
USGS Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOM)

Description: The goal of the USGS Northern Gulf of Mexico project is to understand the evolution of coastal ecosystems on the Northern Gulf Coast, the impact of human activities on these ecosystems, and the vulnerability of ecosystems and human communities to more frequent and more intense hurricanes in the future.
updated: 2009-05-28 pages include:

Map
National Seafloor Mapping and Characterization

Description: Images of the sea floor off the coasts of California, Hawaii, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, and Washington; images of lake floor of Lake Michigan, Crater Lake, Lake Tahoe. Backscatter and swath bathymetry, regular and in 3-D view.
updated: 2009-05-11 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 2009-1029: Coastal processes study of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, California

Description: By Patrick L. Barnard, David L. Revell, Dan Hoover, Jon Warrick, John Brocatus, Amy E. Draut, Pete Dartnell, Edwin Elias, Neomi Mustain, Pat E. Hart, and Holly F. Ryan. The Santa Barbara littoral cell (SBLC) is a complex coastal system with significant management challenges. The coastline ranges broadly in exposure to wave energy, fluvial inputs, hard structures, and urbanization. Geologic influence (structural control) on coastline orientation exerts an important control on local beach behavior, with anthropogenic alterations and the episodic nature of sediment supply and transport also playing important roles.
updated: 2009-03-27 pages include:

Publication
Digital Data Series 72: 2000 Multibeam sonar survey of Crater Lake, Oregon - Data, GIS, images, and movies

Description: In the summer of 2000, the bottom of Crater Lake, Oregon was mapped. The effort was a cooperative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey's Pacific Seafloor Mapping Project, the National Park Service, and the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire. The team used a state-of-the-art multibeam sonar system to collect high-resolution bathymetry and calibrated, co-registered acoustic backscatter to support both biological and geological research in the area (aquatic biology, geochemistry, volcanic processes, etc). This survey collected over 16 million soundings and the resulting data portrays the bottom of Crater Lake at a spatial resolution of 2 meters. This CD-ROM is published for the scientific community, the general public, and as a teaching tool. The CD-ROM contains the raw multibeam bathymetry and backscatter data as well as an ArcExplorer 2.0 project for the scientific community to use in research. Computer-generated images and a fly-by movie allow any user to visualize the lake floor. Photographs and a QuickTime� movie of the helicopter operations shows how the multibeam survey took place and a list of Crater Lake publications and related websites can be used for further Crater Lake research and general interest.
updated: 2009-03-10 pages include:

Publication
USGS Gulf Coast Science Conference and Florida Integrated Science Center Meeting: Proceedings with Abstracts, October 20-23, 2008, Orlando, Florida

Description: Talks, posters, and abstracts from the USGS Gulf Coast Science Conference and Florida Integrated Science Center Meeting.
updated: 2009-01-29 pages include:

Publication
Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5101: The Coral Reef of South Moloka�i, Hawai�i�Portrait of a Sediment-Threatened Fringing Reef

Description: In this landmark volume, U.S. Geological Survey researchers and their colleagues have developed and applied a remarkably integrated approach to the reefs of Moloka�i, combining geology, oceanography, and biology to provide an in-depth understanding of the processes that have made these reefs grow and that now limit them. They have joined old fashioned natural history of marine animals and plants with study of the geological evolution of the island, hydrology, meteorology, and land-use history, to an arsenal of new methods of remote sensing, including aerial photography, laser ranging, infrared thermal mapping, seismic reflection, in-situ instrumentation to measure chemical parameters of water quality, and direct measurements of the physical driving forces affecting them�such as wave energy, currents, sedimentation, and sediment transport. They provide a level of documentation and insight that has never been available for any reef before.
updated: 2008-11-19 pages include:

Publication
USGS OFR 2007-1017: Historical Shoreline Changes at Rinc�n, Puerto Rico, 1936-2006, Title Page

Description: The coast from Punta Hig�ero to Punta Cadena in Rinc�n, Puerto Rico is experiencing long-term erosion. This study documents historical shoreline changes at Rinc�n for the period 1936-2006 and constitutes a significant expansion and revision of previous work. The study area extends approximately 8 km from Punta Hig�ero to Punta Cadena. Fourteen historical shoreline positions were compiled from existing data, new orthophotography, and Global Positioning System (GPS) field surveys.
updated: 2008-11-17 pages include:

Publication
Bathymetric Survey of the Nearshore from Belle Pass to Caminada Pass, Louisiana: Methods and Data Report

Description: "Bathymetric Survey of the Nearshore from Belle Pass to Caminada Pass, Louisiana: Methods and Data Report" is a 27-page, full-color report of a high-resolution, single-beam bathymetric survey along the Louisiana southern coastal zone from Belle Pass to Caminada Pass.
updated: 2008-11-01 pages include:

Publication
GIS Compilation, Data Collected, Pulley Ridge Deep Coral Reef Region, USGS OF 2005-1089, Title Page

Description: GIS compilation of data from the southern portion of Pulley Ridge on the Florida Platform.
updated: 2008-10-11 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 98-139: Multibeam Data and Socio-Economic Issues in West-Central San Francisco Bay

Description: Recent investigations by the USGS in the San Francisco Bay estuary help address both socio-economic and scientific issues: - How much rock must be trimmed from pinnacles on the bayfloor to provide safe navigation by deep-draft vessels? - What would be the environmental and societal consequences of a large oil spill? - What are the consequences of long-term dredging operations? - What types of bayfloor are important habitats for commercial and recreational fisheries? - What types of sediment cover the bayfloor? - What are the sediment distribution, volume, and rates of transport?
updated: 2008-10-10 pages include:

Research Project
WCMG Coastal Processes Studies

Description: California's beaches and nearshore regions are valuable economic and recreational resources but also provide habitats for numerous sensitive species. During winter storms, the coast represents a potentially dangerous interface between ocean and land, nature and humans. Storms produce high waves, strong currents, and elevated sea level that can rapidly erode beaches and inundate low-lying coastal regions, damaging and/or destroying public and private infrastructure as well as stressing coastal ecosystems. Over longer-time scales (e.g. decadal), persistent erosion exacerbated by the pressures of coastal development, reduction in sediment availability and climate change, can result in severely depleted beaches. The USGS performs research along the California coast to understand the physical processes that control coastal change on time scales from individual storms to decades to support the efforts of local, state and government agencies to make informed coastal management decisions to most effectively preserve and protect this valuable resource.
updated: 2008-09-23 pages include:

General Information
USGS WCMG News, Scientists Map Unexplored Arctic Sea Floor

Description: News and Information about the USGS research aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter Healy, mapping the sea floor - the extended continental shelf - in the Artic Ocean this month. This research is being done to define the limits of the extended continental shelf, over which coastal nations can claim sovereign rights under the United Nations Convension on the Law of the Sea.
updated: 2008-09-23 pages include:

Research Project
Southern California Coastal Hazards - USGS WCMG

Description: Southern California Coastal Hazards Study of the USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team
updated: 2008-09-23 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 2007-1112, Updated: The National Assessment of Shoreline Change: A GIS Compilation of Vector Cliff Edges and Associated Cliff Erosion Data for the California Coast

Description: USGS report titled, A GIS Compilation of Vector Shorelines and Associated Shoreline Change Data for the Sandy Shorelines of the California Coast; this report contains links to data coverage --GIS-- of shoreline change of sandy shorelines of the California Coast. Version 1.1. The data files in this version have been updated to correct for a projection error. All files and metadata now accurately reference the NAD83 datum.
updated: 2008-09-16 pages include:

Research Project
Coastal Processes: San Francisco Bight Coastal Processes Study - USGS WCMG

Description: San Francisco Bight Coastal Processes Study of the USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team. The USGS is conducting a study that documents and analyzes the processes that control the sand transport and sedimentation patterns of Ocean Beach, a National Park site within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. This area encompasses a complicated coastal setting that is impacted by the tidal influence of San Francisco Bay, as well as the southwest and northwest Pacific swell. High-energy conditions at this site have restricted comprehensive field surveys in the past, but recent innovations in field techniques now make it possible to perform detailed analysis of the physical processes operating on high energy coastlines, such as Ocean Beach.
updated: 2008-08-12 pages include:

Research Project
Santa Barbara-Ventura Coastal Processes Study - USGS WCMG

Description: Santa Barbara/Ventura Coastal Processes Study of the USGS Western Coastal and Marine Geology Team. Whereas coastal urban development and infrastructure are largely fixed with respect to location, shoreline and bluff positions can change substantially over time in response to natural processes. These natural coastal changes can damage or undermine urban structures, resulting in substantial property loss for federal, state, local and individual land owners. Urban development can also indirectly influence coastal change by interrupting natural supplies or transport of sediment in littoral cells. Thus, it is important to evaluate the rates, patterns and causes of coastal change to better manage sediment resources and predict change hazards in coastal urban settings. The Santa Barbara and Ventura County coast represents a littoral cell along the California coast extending from (at least) Point Conception to the Mugu submarine canyon. The beaches along this littoral cell are an important economic resource to the region, and there is evidence that shoreline and bluff erosion are impacting these beaches. Coastal change in the Santa Barbara/Ventura region is complicated, however, by the irregular coastline (there are numerous rocky headlands, river deltas and offshore reefs), variability in wave forcing, structures such as harbors, groins, piers, dams and landscape urbanization, variability in tectonic uplift, and limited information on littoral sediment sources. In response to the potential for coastal change, BEACON (Beach Erosion Authority for Clean Oceans and Nourishment) and the City of Carpinteria have provided a combined $700K in funding for USGS WCMG to evaluate the coastal change patterns and processes along the Santa Barbara/Ventura County coast until the end of 2008.
updated: 2008-08-12 pages include:

Publication
Open-File Report 2008-1327 - Interferometric Sidescan Bathymetry, Sediment and Foraminiferal Analyses; a New Look at Tomales Bay, California

Description: U.S.G.S. Open-File Report 2008-1327 entitled, Interferometric Sidescan Bathymetry, Sediment and Foraminiferal Analyses; a New Look at Tomales Bay, California. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) in collaboration with Point Reyes National Sea Shore (PRNS), and the Tomales Bay Watershed Council [http://www.tomalesbaywatershed.org/] has completed a detailed bathymetric survey, and sediment and foraminiferal analyses of the floor of Tomales Bay, California. The study goals are to detail the submarine morphology, the sediment distribution, sedimentary features, and distribution of foraminifera to provide a framework for future studies. The USGS collected swath bathymetric data with a SEA SWATHplus interferometric sidescan sonar system (2004, 2005) and an echo sounder system (2006). The data were processed into continuous mosaic images that show bathymetric detail of the bay floor with 0.2-m vertical and 4.0�m horizontal resolution. Acoustic backscatter data from the 2004 and 2005 surveys were processed into 2-m resolution grids. In addition, 27 sediment samples were collected from various parts of the bay for grain size analyses and a comprehensive study of the distribution of foraminifera in Tomales Bay. The foraminiferal analysis determined that the invasive foraminifera Trochammina hadai from Japan was present in Tomales Bay. The project was conducted in response to a request from the National Park Service, and the Tomales Bay Watershed Council who voiced a need to look at the environmental impacts of human input to the surrounding watersheds that ultimately flow into the bay. The mapping, sediment, and foraminiferal data establish a baseline survey for future comparisons of possible geologic and anthropogenic changes that might occur due to changes in land use or development in the surrounding watershed. These data may also aid in determining the possible pathways of pollutants entering the bay from the surrounding watersheds.
updated: 2008-07-31 pages include:

Research Project
Decision Support for Coastal Science and Management

Description: The Decision Support for Coastal Science and Management project, sponsored by the USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) is supporting the creation of new capabilities for the synoptic remote sensing of coastal-marine and terrestrial environments based on aircraft and satellite sensors. These coastal remote-sensing, mapping, and point-monitoring tools constitute a unique integrated package of instrumentation and software that may be deployed in support of appropriately timed and scaled zoning decisions by management authorities in order to conserve and sensibly exploit nearshore coastal and marine ecosystems.
updated: 2008-07-15 pages include:

Publication
Data Series 288: Beach Morphology Monitoring in the Elwha River Littoral Cell, 2004-2006

Description: his report describes the methods used, data collected, and results of the Beach Morphology Monitoring Program in the Elwha River Littoral Cell, starting in 2004. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Washington State Department of Ecology collaborated in the data collection with the support of the local Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. Beach monitoring efforts consisted of collecting topographic and bathymetric horizontal and vertical position data by using a Real Time Kinematic Differential Global Positioning System (RTK-DGPS). The monitoring program was designed to characterize the littoral system of the Elwha River before the scheduled removal of two large dams in 2012. A primary objective of this work is to quantitatively describe the topography and bathymetry of the Elwha River littoral system so that the effects of dam removal may be quantified. Sediment inputs following dam removal are hypothesized to result in (A) larger amounts of fine sediment grain-sizes entering the littoral system and, (B) a reduction or reversal of coastal erosion.
updated: 2008-07-11 pages include:

Publication
Scientific Investigations Map 3007: Views of the Sea Floor in Northern Monterey Bay, California

Description: A sonar survey that produced unprecedented high-resolution images of the sea floor in northern Monterey Bay was conducted in 2005 and 2006. The survey, performed over 14 days by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), consisted of 172 tracklines and over 300 million soundings and covered an area of 12.2 km2 (4.7 mi2). The goals of this survey were to collect high-resolution bathymetry (depth to the sea floor) and acoustic backscatter data (amount of sound energy bounced back from the sea floor, which provides information on sea-floor hardness and texture) from the inner continental shelf. These data will provide a baseline for future change analyses, geologic mapping, sediment- and contaminant-transport studies, benthic-habitat delineation, and numerical modeling efforts. The survey shows that the inner shelf in this area is extremely varied in nature, encompassing flat sandy areas, faults, boulder fields, and complex bedrock ridges that support rich marine ecosystems. Furthermore, many of these complex bedrock ridges form the �reefs� that result in a number of California�s classic surf breaks.
updated: 2008-06-09 pages include:

Publication
USGS-NPS-NASA EAARL Submarine Topography-Northern Florida Keys

Description: Digital map atlas of lidar-derived submarine topography maps for the Northern Florida Keys Reef Tract
updated: 2008-04-25 pages include:

Publication
EAARL Topography-Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (SAHI)

Description: Digital atlas of lidar-derived topography maps for Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
updated: 2008-04-24 pages include:

Publication
EAARL Submarine Topography-Florida Keys National Marine

Description: Digital atlas of Lidar-derived submarine topography maps for Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
updated: 2008-04-21 pages include:

These are results 1 through 25 of 178 matches.

Coastal and Marine Geology Program > Online Science Resource Locator > Bathymetry