Skip to main content

Digital seafloor character data of the Gulf of Alaska from historical National Ocean Service (NOS) smooth sheets

Dates

Publication Date
Start Date
1892
End Date
2001

Citation

Golden, N.E., Reid, J.A., Zimmermann, M., Lowe, E.N., and Hansen, A.S., 2016, Digitized seafloor characterization data from the Gulf of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7CV4FT9.

Summary

This data release provides seafloor-characteristics point data across the Gulf of Alaska, as digitized directly from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Ocean Service (NOS) smooth sheets published from 1892 to 2001, and archived at the National Geophysics Data Center (NGDC). Geo-rectification and digitization methods were adapted from Zimmermann and Benson (2013). Each location includes information for the smooth sheet number (H#####), a unique site number location, latitude, longitude, collection date, seafloor notation, and the translation of the notation. Unique site numbers were assigned randomly to each notation on a smooth sheet, starting at “_0”. Examples of seafloor notations include: rk (= rock); [...]

Contacts

Attached Files

Click on title to download individual files attached to this item.

GADP_NOSSeafloorCharacter.jpg
“Map of sample points used to create seafloor character map”
thumbnail 688.32 KB image/jpeg
GulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.csv 7.22 MB text/csv
Shapefile: GulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.zip
GulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.CPG 5 Bytes
GulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.dbf 145.75 MB
GulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.prj 452 Bytes
GulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.sbn 1.04 MB
GulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.sbx 22.79 KB
GulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.shp 3.12 MB
GulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.shx 912.21 KB

Purpose

In 2012, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) embarked on an ambitious project to digitize surficial seafloor data from existing National Ocean Service (NOS) smooth sheets in the Gulf of Alaska including numerous bays bordering the Gulf. USGS and NOAA are using the data for the nation-wide usSEABED (http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/usseabed) project that seeks to compile and unify existing seafloor characterization point data into GIS-friendly data using the dbSEABED program (Jenkins, 1997; Reid and others, 2005; Buczkowski and others, 2006; Reid and others, 2006) and for the North Pacific Research Board’s Gulf of Alaska Integrated Ecosystems Research Program (NPRB, GOA-IERP, http://www.nprb.org/gulf-of-alaska-project) juvenile groundfish survival project. In addition, NOAA “Deepwater Sponges and Corals” project uses these data to predict viable habitat for those species. Smooth sheets are available through the National Geophysics Data Center’s online data portal (NDGC, http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov). Data on smooth sheets hold densely packed data including surficial seafloor character that variably includes: rockiness, hardness/softness, sediment size, color, and constituents; as well as navigational hazards including anthropogenic sites or remains, rocky reefs, and areas of kelp or sea grass. References: Buczkowski, B.J., Reid, J.A., Jenkins, C.J., Reid, J.M., Williams, S.J., and Flocks, J.G., 2006, usSEABED: Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands) offshore surficial sediment data release: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 146, version 1.0, available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2006/146/. Jenkins, C.J., 1997, Building offshore soils databases: Sea Technology, v. 38, p. 25-28. Reid, J.A., Reid, J.M., Jenkins, C.J., Zimmermann, M., Williams, S.J., and Field, M.E., 2006, usSEABED: Pacific Coast (California, Oregon, Washington) offshore surficial-sediment data release: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 182, version 1.0., available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2006/182/. Reid, J.M., Reid, J.A., Jenkins, C.J., Hastings, M.E., Williams, S.J., and Poppe, L.J, 2005, usSEABED: Atlantic coast offshore surficial sediment data release: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 118, version 1.0., available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2005/118/.

Additional Information

Shapefile Extension

boundingBox
minY50.000503404839066
minX-154.002159652522
maxY50.000554577435196
maxX-154.0018555040463
files
nameGulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.CPG
contentTypetext/plain
pathOnDisk__disk__23/37/75/23377507493a8f69cbab5dc02ecfb2ac00aa4423
imageWidth580
imageHeight435
size5
dateUploadedWed Jun 17 12:12:14 MDT 2020
nameGulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.dbf
contentTypetext/plain
pathOnDisk__disk__6c/2e/4c/6c2e4c162848501d4b3182da32bca8a36ca92cea
imageWidth580
imageHeight435
size152826008
dateUploadedWed Jun 17 12:14:56 MDT 2020
nameGulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.prj
contentTypetext/plain
pathOnDisk__disk__36/46/be/3646be0f20eca428f970f34aa2c8aeb08795f631
imageWidth580
imageHeight435
size452
dateUploadedWed Jun 17 12:12:14 MDT 2020
nameGulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.sbn
contentTypex-gis/x-shapefile
pathOnDisk__disk__6f/14/bc/6f14bc5e109c6a3c758dae910d390490b1e09d00
size1086748
dateUploadedWed Jun 17 12:12:17 MDT 2020
nameGulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.sbx
contentTypex-gis/x-shapefile
pathOnDisk__disk__d7/95/70/d795701fbd5d0801bbadb8ad1d1c761a2f56c300
size23332
dateUploadedWed Jun 17 12:12:15 MDT 2020
nameGulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.shp
contentTypex-gis/x-shapefile
pathOnDisk__disk__bb/be/1f/bbbe1f4853ce8624f159ea919698ebc07b22ae35
size3269100
dateUploadedWed Jun 17 12:12:20 MDT 2020
nameGulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter.shx
contentTypex-gis/x-shapefile
pathOnDisk__disk__3e/97/8a/3e978ac93e7a0f41021a75d55fdd527972839865
size934100
dateUploadedWed Jun 17 12:12:16 MDT 2020
geometryTypePoint
nameGulfofAlaskaDigitizationProject_NOSSeafloorCharacter
nativeCrsEPSG:3338

Item Actions

View Item as ...

Save Item as ...

View Item...