GeoPackage of Seabed Hazards for Offshore Infrastructure, U.S. Atlantic and Pacific Continental Shelves

Energy development is increasing along the Nation’s outer continental shelves. Offshore energy infrastructure, including monopiles for wind turbines, are subject to a variety of shallow hazards such as mobile seabed, shallow gas, glauconite and seismicity. In partnership with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) inventoried the non-proprietary portions of studies conducted by offshore wind developers and the studies of other researchers to characterize seabed geohazards on the United States’s Atlantic and Pacific continental shelves. From this inventory we created a GeoPackage where the studies and geohazards can be examined in a spatial context. The seabed characteristics resolved within this GeoPackage give insight into the siting and monitoring needs for installing sea-floor cables, pipelines, foundations, or other types of development, as well as the broader geological and environmental conditions of a given area.