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U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 02-002

Geological Framework Data from Long Island Sound, 1981-1990:

A Digital Data Release

Coring Program Discussion and Results

 

Skip Table of Contents group; go to coring discussionOFR02-002 Home: return to OFR02-002 homepageINTRODUCTION: go to introductionSEISMIC DATA: Go to seismic data discussionCORE DATA: Current selection
 CERC cores
 1984 MMS cores
 1988 MMS cores
  PHOTO GALLERY: view photos of cruise activities and equipmentDATA CATALOG: Go to data catalog and browse available dataREFERENCES: view suggested referencesRELATED WEBSITES: go to a list of Long Island Sound related websitesACKNOWLEDGMENTS: view acknowledgmentsCONTACTS: view contact informationDISCLAIMER: view disclaimer informationREADME: view readme information

R/V ATLANTIC TWIN.  Click on image for a larger view.  Larger image will open in new browser window.Two major vibratory coring programs have been conducted in Long Island Sound, and their results are included in this report. Both programs were conducted aboard the ATLANTIC TWIN, a twin-hulled vessel of approximately 40-ton displacement, and used an Alpine Geophysical Associates, Inc. pneumatic, vibrating hammer-driven coring assembly. In this device, the vibrator sits atop a core pipe made of standard 4-inch steel pipe. A metal H-beam, supported by four legs, serves as a support tower and a guide for the vibrator and core pipe. This coring device has the advantage of being able to recover long, continuous, relatively-undisturbed samples of the sea floor. The cores were collected in 3.5-inch diameter plastic-liner tubes. In the laboratory, the cores were split lengthwise into working and archive halves for sampling and photography.


FIGURE: Alpine Geophysical Associates, Inc. coring assembly, view 1.  Larger image will open in new browser window.. FIGURE: Alpine Geophysical Associates, Inc. coring assembly, view 2.  Larger image will open in new browser window. FIGURE: Alpine Geophysical Associates, Inc. coring assembly, view 3.  Larger image will open in new browser window. FIGURE: Alpine Geophysical Associates, Inc. coring assembly, view 4.  Larger image will open in new browser window.

Various views of Alpine Geophysical Associates, Inc. coring assembly.
Clicking on an image will open a larger image in a new browser window.


 

CERC Cores

Map Illustration: Map of Long Island sound showing location of CERC cores.The first major coring program in the Long Island Sound was conducted through the Inner Continental Shelf Sediment and Structure (ICONS) program of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Coastal Engineering and Research Center (CERC). This program, which collected 75 vibratory cores (Figure 1), was directed toward mapping sand resources suitable for beach restoration, determination of regional engineering properties of shelf sediments, and effects of ocean dumping (Williams, 1981). These cores were subsequently redescribed in detail at Hampton University with funding from the USGS (Andrew Grosz, USGS, oral communication, 2001) to make them more useful for delineations of shelf structural characteristics and analyses of shelf history and sediment sources. Cores recovered from the Sound ranged from 1.3 to 5 m in length, and were collected in water depths that ranged from 3 to 30 m.

MMS Cores

Map Illustration: Map of Long Island Sound showing MMS core sites and seismic lines.The second major coring program was conducted between 1984-1988 as part of a cooperative between the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the State of Connecticut, and the Association of American State Geologists (AASG). The purpose of this program was to investigate the geology of the inner continental shelf off southern New England. In Long Island Sound, this effort was focused on verification of the systematic high-resolution seismic-reflection surveys collected as part of a cooperative between the State of Connecticut and the U.S. Geological Survey. As part of this program, 13 vibratory cores were collected at 14 locations on the seismic lines during 1984 (Figure 2). During 1988, 8 cores were collected in Long Island Sound and 3 cores were collected in Block Island Sound, all on the existent seismic lines. Although not shown in figure 2, 3 cores on this cruise were also collected further east in Rhode Island Sound. Cores recovered ranged from 1.4 to 8.5 m in length.

 

   
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection


Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey > Coastal and Marine Geology Program > Long Island Sound Studies
Contact: L.J. Poppe (lpoppe@usgs.gov")