Geological Framework Data from Long Island Sound, 1981-1990: A Digital Data Release

Since 1980 the Coastal and Marine Geology Program of the U.S. Geological
Survey and Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection have conducted a
joint program of cooperative geologic research in Long Island Sound and its
vicinity. As part of this program, a highly successful regional-scale study of
theSeismic reflection acquisition illustration geologic framework was
completed. Reconnaissance high-resolution seismic reflection data were
collected and used to establish the basic stratigraphy within the Sound and to
map the major geologic units (Needell and Lewis, 1984; Lewis and Needell, 1987;
Needell and others, 1987); field verification of the geologic interpretations
of the seismic profiles was primarily accomplished with vibratory cores
(Williams, 1981; Thomas, 1985; Neff and others, 1989). These interpretations
were in turn used to produce basin-wide syntheses of the late Quaternary
depositional history (Lewis and Stone, 1991; Stone and others, 1998; Lewis and
DiGiacomo-Cohen, 2000).

Unfortunately, the original seismic records and core logs were generated only
in analog form. These unique paper documents, which are still under demand for
industrial applications and academic research, are fragile and have become
ragged from frequent use. The purpose of this report is to preserve these data
by converting the seismic profiles, core descriptions, and ancillary reports
into digital form, and to organize these files into a product that can be more
readily accessed and disseminated.

Not all of the existing high-resolution seismic-reflection surveys, collected
in Long Island Sound through cooperatives with the U.S. Geological Survey and
the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, have been incorporated
into this report. These surveys, whose records are still in need of
preprocessing and annotation, generally cover smaller areas along the
Connecticut coast and were originally intended to provide additional detail to
the larger, more regional data sets presented herein. The digital release of
the omitted data sets is planned as part of a future product.