Archive of Water Gun Subbottom Data Collected During USGS Cruise SEAX 96004, New York Bight, 1 May - 9 June, 1996, USGS OFR 00-396

Beginning in 1995, the USGS, in cooperation with the U.S Army Corps of
Engineers (USACE), New York District, began a program to generate
reconnaissance maps of the sea floor offshore of the New York-New
Jersey metropolitan area, one of the most populated coastal regions of
the United States. The goal of this mapping program is to provide a
regional synthesis of the sea-floor environment, including a
description of sedimentary environments, sediment texture, seafloor
morphology, and geologic history to aid in understanding the impacts
of anthropogenic activities, such as ocean dumping. This mapping
effort differs from previous studies of this area by obtaining
digital, sidescan sonar images that cover 100 percent of the sea
floor. This investigation was motivated by the need to develop an
environmentally acceptable solution for the disposal of dredged
material from the New York - New Jersey Port, by the need to identify
potential sources of sand for renourishment of the southern shore of
Long Island, and by the opportunity to develop a better understanding
of the transport and long-term fate of contaminants by investigations
of the present distribution of materials discharged into the New York
Bight over the last 100+ years (Schwab and others, 1997).

This DVD-ROM contains copies of the navigation and field Water Gun
subbottom data collected aboard the R/V Seaward Explorer, from 1 May -
9 June, 1996. This DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disc-Read Only Memory)
has been produced in accordance with the UDF (Universal Disc Format)
DVD-ROM Standard (ISO 9660 equivalent) and is therefore capable of
being read on any computing platform that has appropriate DVD-ROM
driver software installed. Access to the data and information
contained on this DVD-ROM was developed using the HyperText Markup
Language (HTML) utilized by the World Wide Web (WWWW). Development of
the DVD-ROM documentation and user interface in HTML allows a user to
access the information by using a variety of WWW browsers to
facilitate browsing and locating information and data. To access the
information contained on this disk with a WWW client browser, open the
file'index.htm' at the top level directory of this DVD-ROM with your
selected browser. The HTML documentation is written utilizing some
HTML 4.0 enhancements. The disk should be viewable by all WWW browsers
but may not properly format on some older WWW browsers. Also, some
links to USGS collaborators and other agencies are available on this
DVD-ROM. These links are only accessible if access to the Internet is
available during browsing of the DVD-ROM.