Area of Operations: Chandeleur Islands, Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana, United States, Gulf of Mexico, North America, North Atlantic
Dates: July 06, 2006 to July 18, 2006
Chief scientist: Dave Twichell
Objectives: The objectives of this cruise were to map the sea floor and shallow stratigraphy along the offshore side of the Chandeleur Islands off the eastern side of the Mississippi delta. This survey was done in collaboration with the USGS (St. Petersburg) and the Univ. of New Orleans who conducted geophysical surveys closer to shore than could be reached aboard the ACADIANA and along the back of the Chandeleur Islands. The reason for the mapping was to assess the effect of Hurricane Katrina on the sea floor surrounding these islands.
Type of Activity: Sea floor mapping;Sea floor mapping
Information to be derived: Sea floor map; Bathymetric maps; Morphology;
Summary: The Chandeleur Islands were severely damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the goal of this cruise was to map the inner shelf offshore of the northern part of the island chain to assess the impact of these hurricanes on the inner shelf. The survey covered an area approximately 5 km wide by 46 km long that started in water depths as shallow as 4.5 m and ended in water depths reaching 16 m. A series of shore parallel lines spaced approximately 150 m apart were complimented with a set of on/offshore lines spaced about 1 km apart. Sidescan sonar imagery, interferometric bathymetry and Chirp sub-bottom profiles were collected along all survey lines. The shore-parallel lines were spaced to provide continuous sidescan sonar coverage, and about 50% bathymetric coverage. All data were logged digitally and were archived to DVD-ROM prior to the end of the cruise. Geophysical and navigation data were collected along 1877 km of survey lines.
Contact: Wayne Baldwin (wbaldwin@usgs.gov)
InfoBank: uses the identifier A-1-06-GM. Visit this site for more information.
Related Links:
|  - Download 06015.kml to view this field activity in Google Earth
| Publications resulting from these dataBaldwin, Wayne E., Pendleton, Elizabeth A., and Twichell, David C.,2009, Geophysical data from offshore of the Chandeleur Islands, eastern Mississippi Delta: U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 2008-1195. (Also available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1195/)
Twichell, David, Pendleton, Elizabeth, Baldwin, Wayne, and Flocks, James,2009, Subsurface control on seafloor erosional processes offshore of the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana: Geo-Marine Letters, v. 29, no. 6: p. 349-358. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00367-009-0150-x)
Flocks, James, Miner, Michael D., Twichell, David C., Lavoie, Dawn L., and Kindinger, Jack,2009, Evolution and preservation potential of fluvial and transgressive deposits on the Louisiana inner shelf; understanding depositional processes to support coastal management: Geo-Marine Letters, v. 29, no. 6: p. 359-378. (Also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00367-009-0164-4)
Data Types and Locations:| Bathymetry | Navigation | Logs | Seismics | Sonar | |
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U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
