Gridded multibeam bathymetry data from the Central Indian Ridge

These multibeam bathymetry grids were generated from swath data collected in May-July 2001 aboard ORV Sagar Kanya during cruise SK165. This gridded data set was processed and published as part of an US-Indian international collaboration project (investigators Chuck DeMets and R.K. Drolia). The 59-beam Hydrosweep swath sonar system operated at a frequency of 15.5 kHz and produced a cross-track swath that is 70 m to 200 m wide. The cross-track horizontal resolution was about 140 m. Relative depths were known to 10–25 m. A total of 53 ridge-normal profiles ranging in length from 125-200 km were collected across seven ridge segments at the Sealark, Vema and Vityaz fracture zones. These gridded data files are in NetCDF format (suitable for importing to GMT scripts). The data set was generated as part of the project called US-India Cooperative Research: A Multibeam Survey of the Equatorial Carlsberg and Central Indian Ridges and Their Fracture Zones, 3N-10S. Funding sources included NSF award OISE 02-44894.