Abstract

Gridded multibeam bathymetry covers approximately 10.4 square kilometers of sea floor in the vicinity of Cross Rip Channel in Nantucket Sound, offshore southeastern Massachusetts. Although originally collected for charting purposes during National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration hydrographic survey H12007, these acoustic data, and the sea-floor sediment sampling and bottom photography stations subsequently occupied to verify them, show the composition and terrain of the seabed and provide information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. This report is part of an expanding series of cooperative studies by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management that provide a fundamental framework for research and resource-management activities (for example, windfarms, pipelines, and dredging) along the inner continental shelf offshore of Massachusetts.

First posted February 22, 2012