Sectional Acoustic Backscatter Image (Falsecolor) of the Puerto Rico Trench in a Projected Coordinate System (utm19_30m_mosaic)

The Puerto Rico Trench is a tectonic plate boundary where the North American Plate slides by and descends under the Caribbean Plate. Although much of the trench lies within the United States of America's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), surprisingly few surveys have been conducted there during the past 25 years. This data set is a grey toned surface model image product derived from a process using multibeam bathymetry and acoustic-backscatter imagery data collected during the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) science cruise 02051 in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Research Cruise RB0208 from 24 September to 30 September 2002, Leg I of III. (Leg II and III: 20030218 to 20030407 and 20030828 to 20030904, respectively).