1. Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources
  2. Geoscience Data System

Field Activity 08CGS02

Identifier 08CGS02
Purpose To collect cores from 3 species of living coral heads to be used as proxies for retrospective studies of Sea Surface Temperature and paleoenvironmental conditions. And to core into the Holocene rock cap in the Dry Tortugas to be used in reconstruction of sea level history and in the understanding of geological environmental changes in the Dry Tortugas.
Location Dry Tortugas National Park, FL
Summary Collected 9 coral head cores from 3 species (Siderastrea siderea, Montastraea faveolata, and Diploria strigosa) within the Dry Tortugas Naitonal Park, primarily in the northeastern quadrant of the park. Holocene cores were collected at 3 sites. Depths drilled ranged from 10 to 18 meters below seafloor. Elevation was collected for the Holocene coring sites by using a dual-frequencey GPS system with Thales choke-ring setup. A basestation was established on a known benchmark, located on top of the fort on garden key, was used to increase the precision of the horizontal and vertical position/elevation at the coring sites.
Info derived Coral cores will be used as proxies for sea surface temperature (strontium-to-calcium rations in skeletal material) and coral growth rates over time. Holocene cores will be used in the determination of sea level positioning during the past 10,000 years.
Comments Equipment Used: Batteries
Platform
Halimeda
Itinerary
Start Key West, FL 2008-08-04
End Key West, FL 2008-08-04
Bounds
West -83.0345
East -82.63046329
North 24.7240596
South 24.45802992
Topic 17
Marine operations Yes

Personnel

Organization
600 Fourth Street South
St. Petersburg, FL33701-4846
(727) 502-8000
Principal investigators Richard Z Poore
Crew members
Jennifer A. Flannery
Scientist, Staff
Billy J Reynolds
Scientist, Staff
Caitlin E Reynolds
Scientist, Staff
Barbara H Lidz
Scientist, Staff
Information specialist(s)
Hickey, T
Specialist, Information
Christopher D Reich
Specialist, Information

Data types and categories

Data category: Imagery, Location-Elevation, Sampling, Time Series
Data type: Photo, Navigation, Geology, Mooring (physical oceanography)

Equipment used

Equipment Usage description Data types Datasets
Tripod Mooring (physical oceanography), Benchmarks, Navigation (no data expected)
Ashtech Z-Xtreme DGPS Benchmarks, Navigation 2
Camera, Digital, Hand Held Photo 1
Choke Ring Antenna Benchmarks, Navigation (no data expected)
Core Barrels Geology 6
Hydraulic Coring Drill Geology 12

Datasets

Datasets produced in this activity

Dataset name Equipment Description Dataset contact
08CGS02-NL-rd-1 Ashtech Z-Xtreme DGPS GPS points Christopher D Reich
08CGS02-PV-rd-1 Camera, Digital, Hand Held field photos Christopher D Reich
08CGS02-SA-pd-3 Core Barrels evaluation of coral DRTO 2008 Jennifer A. Flannery
08CGS02-SA-pd-4 Core Barrels core description sheets (lithologic descriptions) Christopher D Reich
08CGS02-SA-pd-5 Core Barrels core photographs Christopher D Reich
08CGS02-SA-pd-6 Core Barrels Sr/Ca analysis Jennifer A. Flannery
08CGS02-SA-rd-1 Core Barrels Coral and Holocene Rock Cores from DRTO Christopher D Reich

Datasets compiled from multiple sources

Dataset name Equipment Description Dataset contact
FKRT_Core_Locations Ashtech Z-Xtreme DGPS Geospatial, site, and acquisition details for each core Lauren T Toth
DryTortugas_Sr_Ca_SeaSurfaceTemps_1837_2012 Core Barrels Sub annual and mean annual Sr/Ca values, annual linear extension rates, and composite SST data for coral cores CG2 (Siderastrea siderea) and B3 (Orbicella faveolata) from the Dry Tortugas National Park Jennifer A. Flannery
FKRT_Radiometric_Ages Hydraulic Coring Drill Radiocarbon and U-series ages of Holocene reef cores from the FKRT Lauren T Toth
FKRT_Core_Data Hydraulic Coring Drill Core locations and other metadata and estimates of Holocene reef thickness, average accretion rates, and ages of reef initiation and senescence Lauren T Toth
FKRT_Accretion_500yr_Bins Hydraulic Coring Drill Average reef accretion for each subregion within 500-yr bins during the Holocene Lauren T Toth
FKRT_Temporal_Core_Data Hydraulic Coring Drill Estimates of relative sea level, paleodepth, accretion rates, and rates of relative sea level change for dated intervals within the cores Lauren T Toth
FKRT_Core_Photographs Hydraulic Coring Drill High-resolution photographs of Holocene reef cores from the FKRT Lauren T Toth
FKRT_Descriptive_Core_Logs Hydraulic Coring Drill Descriptive core logs for Holocene reef cores from the FKRT Lauren T Toth
FKRT_Absolute_Composition Hydraulic Coring Drill The absolute percent composition of corals and carbonate reef rock in Holocene-aged intervals of reef cores from the FKRT Lauren T Toth
FKRT_Relative_Coral_Composition Hydraulic Coring Drill The percent composition of corals and carbonate reef rock in Holocene-aged intervals of reef cores from the FKRT Lauren T Toth
FKRT_Age_Estimates Hydraulic Coring Drill Estimated ages of specific depths within the cores Lauren T Toth
FKRT_Paleodepth_Estimates Hydraulic Coring Drill Estimated paleodepths of specific depths within the cores Lauren T Toth
Mid-to-late_Holocene_SrCa_ LinExt_18O Hydraulic Coring Drill Sr/Ca, linear extension rates, and paired Sr/Ca and oxygen isotope data Jessica A. Jacobs
USGS Archive of Computed tomography (CT) Scans of Coral Cores Hydraulic Coring Drill This data release presents computed tomography (CT) imagery generated from coral core samples curated within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coral-Core Archive. These data were collected as part of ongoing USGS coral-reef research activities and include samples originating from multiple locations and collection efforts. A Geotek Rotating X-ray CT (RXCT) system was used to acquire x-ray images and perform CT reconstructions of archived coral cores. The full three-dimensional CT dataset consists of individual axial slices which are reconstructed images in TIFF format. These axial slices are oriented perpendicular to the long axis of the core. Two-dimensional orthogonal views are also provided that illustrate representative downcore slabs of each core. Geotek software-proprietary XML files are provided in each folder containing axial slices and orthogonal views, containing more image-scaling and information on x-ray system settings and reconstruction parameters. This data release allows future expansions of the archive to incorporate CT imagery scanned under the same consistent methodology from additional coral cores, locations, and collection efforts. Ferdinand K Oberle

Publications

Samples collected during this field activity