Gravel, sand, silt, and clay contents were determined for samples from Narragansett Bay and the adjacent Rhode Island Shelf. In the Narragansett Bay system, clayey silt and sand-silt-clay are the most abundant sediments. Sand is abundant locally and on the inner shelf. In general, toward the lower passages of the Bay the sediments show a progressive change to coarser textures.

The sediment data presented in this data layer were from an ecological study sited near the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine. The analog data were originally converted into digital form for inclusion in a Gulf of Maine Contaminated Sediments Database.

The sediment data contained in this set were produced as part of the site description and monitoring phases of an aquaculture demonstration project. The site is located off the coast of New Hampshire in the Gulf of Maine.

The sediment data presented in this data layer were from a geochemical study sited in Great Bay Estuary, New Hampshire. The analog data were originally converted into digital form for inclusion in a Gulf of Maine Contaminated Sediments Database.

The sediments and geomorphology of a portion of the northeastern continental shelf between Hudson Canyon and Georges Bank have been investigated. Wave-cut terraces at 13, 45, 65, and 80 fathoms indicate four former low sea levels, while concentrations of beach ridges around 35 fathoms reveal a fifth. The pre-Holocene drainage pattern, still exposed over part of the area, shows that Block Channel was the main stream system which drained most of southern New England. The surface sediments on the western part of the study area are Late Pleistocene fluvial deposits. Overlying these coarse deposits in the central part of the outer shelf is a sandy silt facies that is also relict. The youngest facies and the only area of present deposition, is in the northeastern part where sand eroded from Nantucket Shoals is being deposited on the shelf.

Surficial geologic maps play and important role in understanding the present sea floor and the processes that shape it. Between 1984 and 1991, over 1,700 bottom sample stations were occupied in the northwestern Gulf of Maine. Although the data were originally collected for a variety of research projects, contracts, and graduate student theses, they were eventually compiled as part of a Maine Geological Survey and University of Maine program to map the inner continental shelf of this region.

The sediment data presented in this data layer were from a geochemical study sited in Great Bay estuarine system of New Hampshire. Textural data were used to support interpretations of trace metal distributions. The analog data were originally converted into digital form for inclusion in a Gulf of Maine Contaminated Sediments Database.

The coastal dunes, beaches, and inner neritic zone of the Merrimack Embayment constitute a petrologic province. In addition to heavy mineral analyses, grain size statistics were generated on most of the samples. Neritic and beach sediments can be differentiated using scatter plots of statistics, but statistical parameters are ineffective in differentiating between river and neritic sediments.

This data set contains sediment grain size and textural information from the Continental Margin Program. The program was a joint collaboration between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution during the 1960s to conduct a geological reconnaissance investigation of the continental shelf and slope off the Atlantic coast of the United States. Only those records with complete size analyses are included in this data set. Other stations where only lithologic descriptions are available have been excluded.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (MA CZM), is producing detailed geologic maps of the coastal sea floor. Imagery, originally collected by NOAA for charting purposes, provide a fundamental framework for research and management activities along this part of the Massachusetts coastline, show the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provide information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. Interpretive data layers were derived from multibeam echo-sounder and sidescan sonar data collected in Great Round Shoal Channel, a passage through the shoals at the eastern entrance to Nantucket Sound, off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In June 2006, bottom photographs and surficial sediment data were acquired as part of a ground-truth reconaissance survey.