[SEMCO] USGS-Mass CZM Publish New Reports for Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound

[Jeffrey M. Brodeur]

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM) are pleased to announce the recent publication of two new seafloor mapping reports:

USGS Open-File Report 2014-1221: Geological Sampling Data and Benthic Biota Classification—Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, Massachusetts  [link: http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20141221 <http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20141221>] by Ackerman, S.D., Pappal, A.L., Huntley, E.C., Blackwood, D.S., and Schwab, W.C. contains sample and photography data, including a classification of benthic biota observed in sea-floor photographs and based on the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS).  

USGS Open-File Report 2014-1220: Shallow Geology, Sea-Floor Texture, and Physiographic Zones of Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts [link:http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20141220 <http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20141220>] by Foster, D.S., Baldwin, W.E., Barnhardt, W.A., Schwab, W.C., Ackerman, S.D., Andrews, B.D., and Pendleton, E.A. contains geologic, sediment texture, and physiographic zone maps that characterize the sea floor of Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts.  These data are derived from interpretations of the seismic-reflection profiles, high-resolution bathymetry, acoustic-backscatter intensity, bottom photographs, and surficial sediment samples.  

Bathymetry, acoustic-backscatter, and seismic-reflection profiles were previously released in USGS Open-File Report 2012-1006: High-Resolution Geophysical Data from the Inner Continental Shelf: Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts [link: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1002/ <http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2012/1002/>]


These are the most recent reports prepared as part of the long-standing cooperative mapping program between the USGS and CZM, which began in 2003 and has mapped more than 2,330 square kilometers (900 square miles) of the Commonwealth’s coastal waters.  Other reports from the USGS-CZM Seafloor Mapping Program can be found on the recently updated USGS Geologic Mapping of the Seafloor Offshore of Massachusetts website <http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/project-pages/coastal_mass/>.

For more information on CZM’s role, see the CZM Seafloor Mapping Program website <http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/czm/program-areas/seafloor-and-habitat-mapping/>.  

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Seth D. Ackerman | U.S. Geological Survey | 384 Woods Hole Road | Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598 | tel: 508.457.2315 | email: sackerman at usgs.gov <mailto:sackerman at usgs.gov>









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