Sediment Grain-Size Data from Sediment Cores Collected in March 2012 Along the Northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana (U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity Numbers 12BIM01)

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Sediment Grain-Size Data from Sediment Cores Collected in March 2012 Along the Northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana (U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity Numbers 12BIM01)
Abstract:
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center collected a set of sediment cores from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, in March 2012. The sampling efforts were part of a larger USGS study to evaluate effects on the geomorphology of the Chandeleur Islands following the construction of an artificial sand berm to reduce oil transport onto federally managed lands. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response of the back-barrier tidal and wetland environments to the berm. This report serves as an archive for sedimentological and radiochemical data derived from the sediment cores. The data described in this report is available for download.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    Adams, C. Scott, and Marot, Marci E., 20170315, Sediment Grain-Size Data from Sediment Cores Collected in March 2012 Along the Northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana (U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity Numbers 12BIM01):.

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Marot, Marci E., Smith, Christopher G., Adams, C. Scott, and Richwine, Kathryn A., 20170315, Sediment Lithology and Radiochemistry from the Back-Barrier Environments Along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana: March 2012: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1045, U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg, FL.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -88.835832
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -88.825012
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 29.969498
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 29.895495
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Beginning_Date: 24-Mar-2012
    Ending_Date: 26-Mar-2012
    Currentness_Reference:
    ground condition
  5. What is the general form of this data set?
    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: Tabular digital data
  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?
    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?
    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?
  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?
    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    The detailed attribute descriptions for the statistics summary workbooks are provided in the included data dictionary (Grain_Size_Data-Dictionary.pdf). These metadata are not complete without this file.
    Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation:
    Data Dictionary for Grain-Size Data Tables, in: Marot and others, Sediment Lithology and Radiochemistry from the Back-barrier Environments Along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana: March 2012: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1045, https://doi.org/10.3133/ds1045.

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
    • C. Scott Adams
    • Marci E. Marot
  2. Who also contributed to the data set?
    U.S. Geological Survey, Coastal and Marine Geology Program, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: Marci E. Marot
    Geologist
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727) 502-8000 (voice)
    mmarot@usgs.gov

Why was the data set created?

The Grain_Size_Data.xlsx Excel spreadsheets include summarized particle-size analysis results from back-barrier wetland sediment cores collected on the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana in March 2012 by the USGS, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.

How was the data set created?

  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?
  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?
    Date: 2012 (process 1 of 6)
    At each of the seven sample sites, a 10.2-centimeter (cm)-diameter push core was collected. Eight sediment push cores were collected from the northern Chandeleur Islands in March 2012 (USGS Field Activity Numbers 12BIM01); core lengths varied between 45.5 and 70 cm. Accurate position and elevation data were obtained at all sampling locations with an Ashtech Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) receiver and antenna with occupation times of 30 minutes. The accuracy of both horizontal position and elevation were improved by post-processing the DGPS data using a local benchmark, which was occupied throughout the course of each field activity by a similar DGPS system. Samples were transported to the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) for analysis. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: Marci E. Marot
    Geologist
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727) 502-8000 (voice)
    mmarot@usgs.gov
    Date: 2012 (process 2 of 6)
    Prior to particle-size analysis, organic material was chemically removed for the marsh core samples using 30 percent hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Wet sediment from the marsh samples were dissolved in H2O2 overnight. The H2O2 was then evaporated and the sediment washed and centrifuged twice with deionized water. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: Marci E. Marot
    Geologist
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727) 502-8000 (voice)
    mmarot@usgs.gov
    Date: 2012 (process 3 of 6)
    Grain-size analyses were performed using a Coulter LS 200 (https://www.beckmancoulter.com/) particle-size analyzer, which uses laser diffraction to measure the size distribution of sediments ranging in size from 0.4 microns to 2 millimeters (mm) (clay to very coarse grained sand). In order to prevent shell fragments from damaging the LS 200, particles greater than 1 mm in diameter were separated from all samples prior to analysis using a number 18 (1000 microns or 1 mm) U.S. standard sieve, which meets the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) E11 standard specifications for determining particle size using woven-wire test sieves. Two subsamples from each sample were processed through the LS 200 a minimum of three runs each. The LS 200 measures the particle-size distribution of each sample by passing sediment suspended in solution between two narrow panes of glass in front of a laser. Light is scattered by the particles into characteristic refraction patterns measured by an array of photodetectors as intensity per unit area and recorded as relative volume for 92 size-related channels (bins). The size-classification boundaries for each bin were specified based on the ASTM E11 standard. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: Marci E. Marot
    Geologist
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727) 502-8000 (voice)
    mmarot@usgs.gov
    Date: 2013 (process 4 of 6)
    The raw grain-size data were then run through the free software program GRADISTAT (Blott and Pye, 2001; http://www.kpal.co.uk/gradistat), which calculates the mean, sorting, skewness, and kurtosis of each sample geometrically in metric units and logarithmically in phi units (F) using the method. GRADISTAT also calculates the fraction of sediment from each sample by size category (for example, clay, coarse silt, fine sand) based on a modified size scale. A macro function in Microsoft Excel, developed by the USGS SPCMSC, was applied to the data tocalculate average and standard deviation for each sample set (6 runs per sample), and highlight runs that varied from the set average by more than ±1.5 standard deviations. Excessive deviations from the mean are likely the result of equipment error or extraneous organic material in the sample and are not considered representative of the sample. The highlighted runs were removed from the results and the sample average was recalculated using the remaining runs. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: Marci E. Marot
    Geologist
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727) 502-8000 (voice)
    mmarot@usgs.gov
    Data sources produced in this process:
    • Grain_Size_Run_Statistics.zip
    Date: 2013 (process 5 of 6)
    The averaged results for all samples, including the number of runs included and the standard deviation of the averaged results were summarized in an of Excel workbook with results from each core on its own tab. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: Marci E. Marot
    Geologist
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727) 802-5000 (voice)
    mmarot@usgs.gov
    Data sources produced in this process:
    • Grain_Size_Data.xlsx
    Date: 13-Oct-2020 (process 6 of 6)
    Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword. Person who carried out this activity:
    U.S. Geological Survey
    Attn: VeeAnn A. Cross
    Marine Geologist
    384 Woods Hole Road
    Woods Hole, MA

    508-548-8700 x2251 (voice)
    508-457-2310 (FAX)
    vatnipp@usgs.gov
  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?
    Marot, M.E., Adams, C.S., Richwine, K.A., Smith, C.G., Osterman, L.E., and Bernier, J.C., 2014, Temporal changes in lithology and radiochemistry from the back-barrier environments along the Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana: March 2012-July 2013: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2014-1079.

    Online Links:

    Bernier, J.C., Kelso, K.W., Buster, N.A., Flocks, J.G., Miselis, J.L., and DeWitt, N.T., 2014, Sediment data collected in 2012 from the northern Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 850.

    Online Links:

    Blott, S.J. and Pye, K., 2001, Gradistat: A grain-size distribution and statistics package for the analysis of unconsolidated sediments: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Volume 26.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details: Pages 1237-1248

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?

  1. How well have the observations been checked?
    The grain-size data presented in the run statistics spreadsheets represent the sample averages for a subset of the statistical parameters calculated by GRADISTAT. The number of runs included in the averaged results are also reported, and the standard deviation of the averaged results are reported for most parameters.
  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?
  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?
  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?
    This is a complete grain-size dataset that includes results for 164 sediment samples from 8 push-core sites that were collected from the northern Chandeleur Islands in March 2012 (U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity Numbers 12BIM01). During the March 2012 survey, an additional 31 short (< 60 cm), 1-inch-diameter push cores were collected along 10 transects across the berm and natural island; 29 grab samples were collected from the sediment surface along the axis of the berm and adjacent natural island; and 10 grab samples were collected in shallow water north and west of the berm. These samples were collected as part of a complementary USGS CMGP BIER study investigating sediment movement between the berm and the natural island since berm construction. Analyses of those data are described in Bernier and others (2014).
  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?
    The complete grain-size dataset including all GRADISTAT parameters, results of individual sample runs, and standard deviations for all sample averages are included in the unedited output files. Sample runs in the output files for which the mean Folk and Ward grain size varied from the set average by more than 1.5 standard deviations are highlighted in yellow and were not included in final averaged results.

How can someone get a copy of the data set?

Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
Access_Constraints: None
Use_Constraints:
The U.S. Geological Survey requests that it be acknowledged as the originator of this dataset in any future products or research derived from these data.
  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
    Attn: Marci E. Marot
    Geologist
    600 4th Street South
    St. Petersburg, FL
    USA

    (727) 502-8000 (voice)
    mmarot@usgs.gov
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set? Downloadable data
  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?
    Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), no warranty expressed or implied is made regarding the display or utility of the data on any other system, or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution imply any such warranty. The USGS or U.S. Government shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and (or) contained herein. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
  4. How can I download or order the data?
    • Availability in digital form:
      Data format: This Microsoft Excel workbooks contains the grain-size summary statistics for sediment samples collected in March 2012 (USGS Field Activity Numbers 12BIM01) and associated metadata. in format Microsoft Excel (version 2010) Size: 0.122
      Network links: https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/1045/downloads/Grain_Size_Data.xlsx
    • Cost to order the data: None, if obtained online

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?
    This spreadsheet was created for use with Microsoft Excel 2010. It may also be viewed with the Microsoft Excel viewer or by downloading a Microsoft Compatibility Pack to view with older versions of Microsoft Excel.

Who wrote the metadata?

Dates:
Last modified: 13-Oct-2020
Metadata author:
U.S. Geological Survey
Attn: Marci E. Marot
Geologist
600 4th Street South
St. Petersburg, FL
USA

(727) 502-8000 (voice)
mmarot@usgs.gov
Metadata standard:
Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
This page is <https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/catalog/spcmsc/ds1045_Grain_Size-met.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.50 on Tue Sep 21 18:18:54 2021