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USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program

Field Activity Details for field activity 1995-301-FA

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Other ID: none

Status: Completed

Organization(s): USGS, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center

Funding Program(s):

Principal Investigator(s): Mark Erik Hansen

Affiliate Investigator(s):

Information Specialist(s): Nancy DeWitt

Data Type(s): Location-Elevation: Navigation, Sonar: Single Beam

Scientific Purpose/Goals: Detailed, high-resolution maps of Florida Bay mudbank elevations are needed to understand sediment dynamics and provide input into water quality and circulation models. The bathymetry of Florida Bay had not been systematically mapped in nearly 100 years, and some shallow areas of the bay have never been mapped. An accurate, modern bathymetric survey provides a baseline for assessing future sedimentation rates in the Bay, and a foundation for developing a sediment budget. Due to the complexity of the Bay and age of existing data, a current bathymetric grid (digitally derived from the survey) is critical for numerical models. Numerical circulation and sediment transport models being developed for the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Program are being used to address water quality issues in Florida Bay. Application of these models is complicated due to the complex sea-floor topography (basin/mudbank morphology) of the Bay. The only complete topography data set of the Bay is 100 years old. Consequently, an accurate, modern sea-floor bathymetry map of the Bay is critical for numerical modeling research. A modern bathymetry data set will also permit a comparison to historical data in order to help access sedimentation rates within the Bay.

Vehicle(s): None

Start Port/Location: Florida Bay, FL

End Port/Location: Florida Bay, FL

Start Date: 1995-01-01

End Date: 1999-01-01

Equipment Used: TSS DMS-05 Motion Sensor, Ashtech Z-Xtreme DGPS, Choke Ring Antenna, Marimatech Echosounder

Information to be Derived: Single beam bathymetry (X,Y,Z) data. Products are ASCII text files of the sounding data and point shapefiles representing seafloor elevations.

Summary of Activity and Data Gathered: Number of soundings: 2,138,572 in comma-delimited and Esri point shapefile formats.

Staff: Nancy DeWitt, Mark Erik Hansen

Affiliate Staff:

Notes: This dataset includes bathymetric data south from the Florida Everglades to the Florida Keys and west from Key Largo to Marathon Key. All data were processed relative to the WGS84 (G1150) ellipsoid.


Entries for this field activity are based on entries from Field Activity 2001-301-FA

Entries for this field activity are based on entries from Field Activity 2001-302-FA

Location:

Florida Bay, FL

Boundaries
North: 25.01888433 South: 24.89388433 West: -80.85662842 East: -80.73162842

Platform(s):

Publications

Hansen, M.E., DeWitt, N.T., Reynolds, B.J., 2017, Archive of bathymetry data collected in South Florida from 1995 to 2015: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1031, https://doi.org/10.3133/ds1031.

Portals/Viewers

Data Acquired

Survey EquipmentSurvey InfoData Type(s)Data Collected
TSS DMS-05 Motion Sensor --- Interferometric
Single Beam
Ashtech Z-Xtreme DGPS --- Benchmarks
Navigation
Choke Ring Antenna --- Benchmarks
Navigation
Marimatech Echosounder --- Single Beam
DS1031-FlBay_UTM17_NAVD88-G99_shp.contours.zip (Bathymetric contours in Esri polyline shapefile format.)
DS1031-FLBay_WGS84_NAVD88-G99_SB_txt.xyz.zip (Singlebeam soundings in comma-delimited text format.)
DS1031-FLBay_WGS84_NAVD88-G99_SB_shp.xyz.zip (Singlebeam soundings in Esri point shapefile format.)

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