USGS Studies in Long Island Sound:
Geology, Contaminants, and Environmental Issues

Grain size is the most fundamental property and descriptive measure of a sediment. Sediment grain size also affects benthic community structures and contaminant distributions and is required for environmental, mineral resource, sediment transport, and other assessments. Texture data is available from USGS analysis of samples and from the compilation of published data from the literature.

Click here for a larger view.

Figure 1. Locations of new and historical sample stations in Long Island Sound. There is texture information about these stations in the surficial sediment database below. These data were also used to construct the sediment grain-size distribution map seen under Research Higlights.