Sediment Grain-size Data from sediment grab samples and box cores collected in May 2014 from Barnegat Bay, New Jersey (U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity Numbers 2014-310-FA).

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Frequently anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?

Title:
Sediment Grain-size Data from sediment grab samples and box cores collected in May 2014 from Barnegat Bay, New Jersey (U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity Numbers 2014-310-FA).
Abstract:
Barnegat Bay, located along the eastern shore of New Jersey, was significantly impacted by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed a multidisciplinary study of sediment transport and hydrodynamics to understand the mechanisms that govern estuarine and wetland responses to storm forcing. This report details the physical and chemical characteristics of surficial and downcore sediments from two areas within the bay. Eleven sites were sampled in both the central portion of the bay near Barnegat Inlet and in the southern portion of the bay in Little Egg Harbor. Laboratory analyses include Be-7, Pb-210, bulk density, porosity, x-radiographs, and grain-size distribution. These data will serve as a critical baseline dataset for understanding the current sedimentological regime and can be applied to future storms for understanding estuarine and wetland evolution. This report serves as an archive for sedimentological and radiochemical data derived from the surface sediments and box cores. Downloadable data are available as Excel spreadsheets, PDF files, and JPEG files, and includes sediment core data plots and x-radiographs, as well as, physical-properties, grain-size, alpha-spectoscopy, and gamma-spectroscopy data. Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata are available for analytical datasets in the data downloads page of this report.
Supplemental_Information:
The reported data are the calculated averages of multiple instrument analyses. The results of individual sample runs, and standard deviations for all sample averages are included in the unedited output files (http://pubs.usgs.gov/10.3133/ds993/downloads/14BRN_Grain-Size_Run_Statistics.zip). 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.
  1. How might this data set be cited?
    Marot, Marci E., and Wheaton, Cathryn J., 20160415, Sediment Grain-size Data from sediment grab samples and box cores collected in May 2014 from Barnegat Bay, New Jersey (U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity Numbers 2014-310-FA).:.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Marot, Marci E., Smith, Christopher G., Ellis, Alisha M., and Wheaton, Cathryn J., 20160415, Evaluating the Potential Effects of Hurricanes On Long-term Sediment Accumulation in Two Micro-tidal Sub-estuaries: Barnegat Bay and Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, USA: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 993, U.S. Geological Survey, St. Petersburg, FL.

    Online Links:

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?
    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -74.32585
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -74.12662
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 39.57150
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 39.78782
  3. What does it look like?
  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?
    Beginning_Date: 12-May-2014
    Ending_Date: 14-May-2014
    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 Spreadsheets, in: Marot and others, Evaluating the Potential Effects of Hurricanes On Long-term Sediment Accumulation in Two Micro-tidal Sub-estuaries: Barnegat Bay and Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, USA: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 993, https://doi.org/10.3133/ds993.

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)
    • Marci E. Marot
    • Cathryn J. Wheaton
  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?

14BRN_Grain-Size_Data.zip file includes Excel spreadsheets summarizing particle size analysis results from Barnegat Bay, New Jersey collected in May 2014 (USGS FAN 2014-310-FA) by the U.S. Geological Survey, 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: 2014 (process 1 of 6)
    Eight box cores and 22 ponar grab samples, subsectioned into 221 surface and subsurface sediment samples, were collected from Barnegat Bay and Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey in May 2014 (USGS Field Activity Numbers 2014-301-FA, and 2014-322-FA). Samples were transported to the USGS St. Petersburg, FL 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: 2014 (process 2 of 6)
    Prior to particle size analysis, all samples had organic material chemically removed using approximately 8 mL of 30% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) overnight. The H2O2 was then evaporated and the sediment was 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: 2014 (process 3 of 6)
    Grain-size analyses were performed using a Coulter LS200 (https://www.beckmancoulter.com/) particle-size analyzer, which uses laser diffraction to measure the size distribution of sediments ranging in size from 0.4 μm to 2 mm (clay to very coarse-grained sand). In order to prevent shell fragments from damaging the LS200, particles greater than 1 mm in diameter were separated from all sediments prior to analysis using a number 18 U.S. standard sieve. If there was sediment > 1 mm, the material was dried and the dry weight was recorded. After the samples were washed through the sieve with filtered municipal water, a few milliliters of sodium hexametaphosphate solution was added to act as a deflocculant. The sediment slurry was sonicated with a wand sonicator for 30 – 60 seconds before being introduced into the Coulter LS200 to breakdown aggregated particles. The pre-sieved <1 mm dried fraction was introduced directly into the Coulter LS200. Two subsamples from each sample were processed through the Coulter LS200 a minimum of three runs each. 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: 2014 (process 4 of 6)
    The raw grain-size data were processed with 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 (Φ) (Krumbein, 1934) using the Folk and Ward (Folk, 1957) 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 Wentworth (Wentworth, 1922) size scale. A macro function in Microsoft Excel, developed by the USGS SPCMSC, was applied to the data to calculate average and standard deviation for each sample set (six 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:
    • 14BRN_Grain-Size_Data.zip
    Date: 2014 (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 a series of Microsoft Excel workbooks. 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:
    • 14BRN_Grain-Size_Data.zip
    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?
    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 (http://pubs.usgs.gov/10.3133/ds993/downloads/14BRN_Grain-Size_Data.zip) represent the sample averages for a subset of the statistical parameters calculated by GRADISTAT. The number of runs included in the averaged results are 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 30 surface sediment and 191 subsurface sediment samples sectioned from sediment cores collected in Barnegat Bay and Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey in May 2014 (U.S. Geological Survey Field Activity Numbers 2014-310-FA).
  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 (http://pubs.usgs.gov/10.3133/ds993/downloads/14BRN_Grain-Size_Run_Statistics.zip). 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, 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 U.S. Geological Survey shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and (or) contained herein. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof.
  4. How can I download or order the data?
    • Availability in digital form:
      Data format: This zip archive contains Microsoft Excel workbooks with the grain size summary statistics for subsurface core sediment samples collected in May 2014 (USGS Field Activity Numbers 2014-310-FA) and associated metadata. in format Zip archive (version 1) .zip Size: 0.436
      Network links: https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0993/downloads/14BRN_Grain-Size_Data.zip
    • Cost to order the data: None, if obtained online

  5. What hardware or software do I need in order to use the data set?
    The workbooks included in this .zip file were created for use with Microsoft Excel 2010. They may also be viewed with the Microsoft Excel viewer or by downloading a Microsoft Compatibility Pack to view with older versions of Microsoft Excel. The .zip file also contains comma-delimited files (.csv) of the grain-size data for surface and subsurface sediments. The .csv data files contain the tabular data in plain text and may be viewed with a standard text editor.

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:
FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)
This page is <https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/catalog/spcmsc/ds993_Grain_Size-metadata.faq.html>
Generated by mp version 2.9.50 on Tue Sep 21 18:18:54 2021