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Publications

Scientific reports, journal articles, and information products produced by USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists.

Filter Total Items: 1331

Tufts submarine fan: turbidity-current gateway to Escanaba Trough

Turbidity-current overflow from Cascadia Channel near its western exit from the Blanco Fracture Zone has formed the Tufts submarine fan, which extends more than 350 km south on the Pacific Plate to the Mendocino Fracture Zone. For this study, available 3.5-kHz high-resolution and airgun seismic-reflection data, long-range side-scan sonar images, and sediment core data are used to define the growth
Authors
Jane A. Reid, William R. Normark

Preliminary cross section of Englebright Lake sediments

Overview -- The Upper Yuba River Studies Program is a CALFED-funded, multidisciplinary investigation of the feasibility of introducing anadromous fish species to the Yuba River system upstream of Englebright Dam. Englebright Lake (Figure 1 on poster) is a narrow, 14-km-long reservoir located in the northern Sierra Nevada, northeast of Marysville, CA. The dam was completed in 1941 for the primary p
Authors
Noah P. Snyder, Margaret A. Hampton

Multibeam mapping of selected areas of the outer continental shelf, northwestern Gulf of Mexico: Data, images, and GIS

Following the publication of high-resolution (5-meter spatial resolution) multibeam echosounder (MBES) images of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary area of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (Gardner et al., 1998), the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) and the Minerals Management Service (MMS) have been interested in additional MBES data in the area. A coalition of
Authors
James V. Gardner, Jonathan D. Beaudoin, John E. Hughes Clarke, Peter Dartnell

RV Ocean Surveyor Cruise O1-02-GM; bathymetry and acoustic backscatter of selected areas of the Outer Continental Shelf, northwestern Gulf of Mexico; June 8, through June 28, 2002; Iberia, LA to Iberia, LA

Following the publication of high-resolution multibeam echosounder (MBES) images and data of the Flower Gardens area of the northwest Gulf of Mexico outer continental shelf (Gardner et al., 1998), the Flower Gardens Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) and the Minerals Management Service (MMS) have been interested in additional MBES data in the area. A coalition of FGBNMS, MMS, and the US Geol
Authors
Jonathan D. Beaudoin, James V. Gardner, John E. Hughes Clarke

Cruise report RV Moana Wave Cruise M-1-02-GM bathymetry and acoustic backscatter of the mid and outer continental shelf, head of De Soto Canyon, northeastern Gulf of Mexico June 17, through July 9, 2002 Pensacola, FL to Pensacola, FL

The mid to outer continental shelf off Mississippi-Alabama and off northwest Florida were the focus of US Geological Survey (USGS) multibeam echosounder (MBES) mapping cruises in 2000 and 2001, respectively. These areas were mapped to investigate the extent of "deep-water reefs" first suggested by Ludwick and Walton (1957). The reefs off Mississippi and Alabama were initially described in water de
Authors
James V. Gardner, John E. Hughes Clarke, Larry A. Meyer

Multibeam bathymetry and selected perspective views of main part of Glacier Bay, Alaska

Glacier Bay is a diverse fjord ecosystem with multiple tidewater glaciers and complex biological, geological, and oceanographic patterns that vary greatly along its length. The bay was completely glaciated prior to the 1700's, and subsequently experienced the fastest glacial retreat recorded in historical times. As a result, some of the highest rates of glacial sedimentation and uplift are observe
Authors
Paul R. Carlson, Philip Hooge, Guy Cochrane, Andrew Stevenson, Pete Dartnell, Kristen Lee

Subsurface and petroleum geology of the southwestern Santa Clara Valley ("Silicon Valley"), California

Gravity anomalies, historical records of exploratory oil wells and oil seeps, new organic-geochemical results, and new stratigraphic and structural data indicate the presence of a concealed, oil-bearing sedimentary basin beneath a highly urbanized part of the Santa Clara Valley, Calif. A conspicuous isostatic-gravity low that extends about 35 km from Palo Alto southeastward to near Los Gatos refle
Authors
Richard G. Stanley, Robert C. Jachens, Paul G. Lillis, Robert J. McLaughlin, Keith A. Kvenvolden, Frances D. Hostettler, Kristin A. McDougall, Leslie B. Magoon

Moloka'i fieldtrip guidebook: Selected aspects of the geology, geography, and coral reefs of Moloka'i

This guidebook was compiled with the express purpose of describing the general geology of Moloka'i and those locations with significance to the U.S. Geological Survey's study of Moloka'i's coral reef, a part of the U.S. Department of Interior's 'Protecting the Nation's Reefs' program. The first portion of the guidebook describes the island and gives the historical background. Fieldtrip stop loc
Authors
Susan A. Cochran, Lucile M. Roberts, Kevin R. Evans

Multibeam mapping of the Los Angeles, California Margin

The Los Angeles, California Margin was mapped using multibeam echosounders during three separate surveys (Figure 1). In 1996, the USGS surveyed the shelf and slope in Santa Monica Bay from Pt. Dume to south of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The mapping was accomplished using a Kongsberg Simrad EM1000 multibeam sonar system that provided high-quality bathymetry and quantitative backscatter. In 1998, t
Authors
James V. Gardner, Peter Dartnell

Flow and sediment suspension events on the inner shelf of central California

The US Geological Survey conducted a field experiment in the late spring and early summer of 1998 off northern Santa Cruz County, California, to study sediment fluxes along the central California shelf. As part of this study, a bottom-mounted instrument package was deployed in a sediment-filled paleo-stream channel (h=12 m) off a pocket beach to measure waves, currents, suspended-sediment concentr
Authors
C. D. Storlazzi, B. E. Jaffe

CMGTooL user's manual

During the past several years, the sediment transport group in the Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) of the U. S. Geological Survey has made major revisions to its methodology of processing, analyzing, and maintaining the variety of oceanographic time-series data. First, CMGP completed the transition of the its oceanographic time-series database to a self-documenting NetCDF (Rew et al., 19
Authors
Jingping Xu, Fran Lightsom, Marlene A. Noble, Charles Denham

Multibeam mapping of the Pinnacles region, Gulf of Mexico

Recent USGS mapping shows an extensive deep (~100 m) reef tract occurs on the Mississippi-Alabama outer continental shelf (Figure 1). The tract, known as "The Pinnacles", is apparently part of a sequence of drowned reef complexes along the "40-fathom" shelf edge of the northern Gulf of Mexico (Ludwick and Walton, 1957). It is critical to determine the accurate geomorphology of these deep-reefs bec
Authors
James V. Gardner, Peter Dartnell, Kenneth J. Sulak