Summary Information for Field Activity 2008-037-FA

Area of Operations: Great South Bay, Long Island, New York, United States, North America, North Atlantic

Dates: September 22, 2008 to October 03, 2008

Chief scientist: John Bratton

   Henry Bokuniewicz, Stony Brook Univ.

Objectives: Continuous resistivity profiling, groundwater sampling, sediment sampling, surface water sampling, and radon time series.

Type of Activity: Sampling; Continuous resistivity profiling;Continuous resistivity profiling

Information to be derived: Time series data; Samples and chemical analysis;

Summary: Work performed consisted of CRP surveys with the new 15-m streamer in shore-perpendicular transects in the areas of Patchogue Bay, the south shore of Great South Bay (near wilderness area/Smith Point, and Watch Hill to Talisman), and west of Heckscher State Park. Distributed piezometer sampling was performed along the shore of Patchogue Bay, and an intensive piezometer transect was sampled adjacent to Shorefront Park in Patchogue between the outfall of Little Creek to the east, and the Ocean Ave. pier to the west. Piezometer transect locations extended from the beach out to 30 m offshore, and down to a maximum depth of 9 m. The piezometer samples revealed a zone of low-salinity groundwater that extended offshore as far out as was sampled, confined by what was interpreted as buried salt marsh peat in the shallow subsurface. Seepage meters were also deployed at this site by a team from Stony Brook University, and revealed substantial discharge in the subsurface. A radon time series was also collected from a raft anchored offshore in this area. Additional work planned for FY2009 includes nutrient analysis of samples collected in the last field effort, and additional work farther offshore and along the north side of Fire Island in the spring-summer of 2009.

Contact: Sandy Baldwin (sbaldwin@usgs.gov)
VeeAnn Cross (vatnipp@usgs.gov)
Adrian Green (adriangreen@usgs.gov)

InfoBank: uses the identifier T-37-08-LI. Visit this site for more information.

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