In 2010, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center collected sediment cores from coastal waters offshore of the Mississippi barrier islands. With funding support from the Northern Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Change and Hazard Susceptibility project (NGOM), subaqueous sediment cores were collected over an area of 480 km2, the distance from Ship Island to Petit Bois Island Pass, Mississippi, within the boundary of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. This represents only a fraction of the total area encompassed by the NGOM project, which extends from Sabine Lake, Louisiana to Perdido Bay, Alabama. The primary objectives of the NGOM project are to understand the evolution of coastal ecosystems on the northern gulf coast, the impact of human activities on these ecosystems, and the vulnerability of ecosystems and human communities to more frequent and intense hurricanes in the future. Selection of the core sites was based on geophysical surveys conducted around the islands from 2008-2010. The surveys, using acoustic systems to image and interpret the nearsurface stratigraphy, were conducted to investigate the geologic controls on island evolution. This data series serves as an archive of sediment data collected from August to September, 2010 offshore of the Mississippi barrier islands. Data products, including descriptive core logs, core photographs, results of sediment grain-size analyses, sample location maps, and Geographic Information System (GIS) data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC) metadata, can be downloaded from the data products and downloads page.

In 2010, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center collected sediment cores from coastal waters offshore of the Mississippi barrier islands. With funding support from the Northern Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Change and Hazard Susceptibility project (NGOM), subaqueous sediment cores were collected over an area of 480 km2 the distance from Ship Island to Petit Bois Island Pass, Mississippi, within the boundary of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. This represents only a fraction of the total area encompassed by the NGOM project, which extends from Sabine Lake, Louisiana to Perdido Bay, Alabama. The primary objectives of the NGOM project are to understand the evolution of coastal ecosystems on the northern gulf coast, the impact of human activities on these ecosystems, and the vulnerability of ecosystems and human communities to more frequent and intense hurricanes in the future. Selection of the core sites was based on geophysical surveys conducted around the islands from 2008-2010. The surveys, using acoustic systems to image and interpret the nearsurface stratigraphy, were conducted to investigate the geologic controls on island evolution. This data series serves as an archive of sediment data collected from August to October, 2010 offshore of the Mississippi barrier islands. Data products, including descriptive core logs, core photographs, results of sediment grain-size analyses, sample location maps, and Geographic Information System (GIS) data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC) metadata, can be downloaded from the data products and downloads page.

In 2010, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center collected sediment cores from coastal waters offshore of the Mississippi barrier islands. With funding support from the Northern Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem Change and Hazard Susceptibility project (NGOM), subaqueous sediment cores were collected over an area of 480 km2 the distance from Ship Island to Petit Bois Island Pass, Mississippi, within the boundary of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. This represents only a fraction of the total area encompassed by the NGOM project, which extends from Sabine Lake, Louisiana to Perdido Bay, Alabama. The primary objectives of the NGOM project are to understand the evolution of coastal ecosystems on the northern gulf coast, the impact of human activities on these ecosystems, and the vulnerability of ecosystems and human communities to more frequent and intense hurricanes in the future. Selection of the core sites was based on geophysical surveys conducted around the islands from 2008-2010. The surveys, using acoustic systems to image and interpret the nearsurface stratigraphy, were conducted to investigate the geologic controls on island evolution. This data series serves as an archive of sediment data collected from August to October, 2010 offshore of the Mississippi barrier islands. Data products, including descriptive core logs, core photographs, results of sediment grain-size analyses, sample location maps, and Geographic Information System (GIS) data files with accompanying formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC) metadata, can be downloaded from the data products and downloads page.

In 1999, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in partnership with the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, began a study to investigate processes affecting shoreline change along the northern coast of South Carolina, focusing on the Grand Strand region. Previous work along the U.S. Atlantic coast shows that the structure and composition of older geologic strata located seaward of the coast heavily influences the coastal behavior of areas with limited sediment supply, such as the Grand Strand. By defining this geologic framework and identifying the transport pathways and sinks of sediment, geoscientists are developing conceptual models of the present-day physical processes shaping the South Carolina coast. The primary objectives of this research effort are: 1) to provide a regional synthesis of the shallow geologic framework underlying the coastal upland, shoreface and inner continental shelf, and define its role in coastal evolution and modern beach behavior; 2) to identify and model the physical processes affecting coastal ocean circulation and sediment transport, and to define their role in shaping the modern shoreline; and 3) to identify sediment sources and transport pathways; leading to construction of a regional sediment budget.

This data release serves as an archive of sediment physical properties and grain-size data for surficial samples collected offshore of Assateague Island, Maryland and Virginia, for comparison with surficial estuarine and subaerial sedimentological samples collected and assessed following Hurricane Sandy (Ellis and others, 2015 (http://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151219); Smith and others, 2015 (http://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151169); Bernier and others, 2016 (https://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/0999/)). The sediment samples were collected by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) office in Woods Hole, Massachusetts while aboard the motor vessel (M/V) Scarlett Isabella as part of a larger effort to map the inner continental shelf (Pendleton and others, 2016 (http://doi.org/10.5066/F7MW2F60)). Following field work, the sediment samples were shipped to the USGS Coastal and Marine Science Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, where they were renamed for consistency with a previously existing naming scheme and processed for bulk density, loss on ignition (LOI), and grain-size. The grain-size subsamples were processed on a Coulter LS200 particle-size analyzer for consistency regarding methods and output statistics with related data sets from Chincoteague Bay and Assateague Island. For more information regarding sample collection and site information or the related data sets, refer to USGS data release Pendleton and others, 2016 (https://doi.org/10.5066/F7MW2F60); for more information regarding processing methods refer to USGS Open-File Report 2015Ð1219 (http://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20151219). Downloadable data are available as Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx), comma-separated values text files (.csv), and formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Imagery, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provides a fundamental framework for research and management activities along this part of Long Island Sound, shows the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provides information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. Interpretive data layers were derived from the multibeam echo-sounder data and sidescan-sonar data collected north of Orient Point, New York. During April 2010, bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of a USGS ground-truth reconnaissance survey. For more information on the ground-truth survey see http://quashnet.er.usgs.gov/data/2010/10010/.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Imagery, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provides a fundamental framework for research and management activities along this part of Long Island Sound, shows the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provides information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. Interpretive data layers were derived from the multibeam echo-sounder data and sidescan-sonar data collected north of Orient Point, New York. During April 2010, bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of a USGS ground-truth reconnaissance survey. For more information on the ground-truth survey see http://quashnet.er.usgs.gov/data/2010/10010/.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Imagery, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provides a fundamental framework for research and management activities along this part of Long Island Sound, shows the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provides information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. Interpretive data layers were derived from the multibeam echo-sounder data and sidescan-sonar data collected north of Plum Island, New York. During November 2009, bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of a ground-truth reconnaissance survey. For more information on the ground-truth survey see https://cmgds.marine.usgs.gov/fan_info.php?fa=2009-059-FA.