U. S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 01-154

SEA-FLOOR PHOTOGRAPHY FROM THE CONTINENTAL MARGIN PROGRAM:

A Pictorial Survey of Benthic Character and Habitats
Along the U.S. East Coast

OFR01-154 home

Introduction

Bottom Photographs

GIS Data

Cruise Documents

References

Acknowledgements

Contacts

Disclaimer

README

README

INTRODUCTION

This CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory) has been produced in accordance with the ISO 9660 CD-ROM Standard and is therefore capable of being read on any computing platform that has appropriate CD-ROM driver software installed. The disk has been tested on systems utilizing the following operating systems: Windows 98/2000/NT, Macintosh and Unix. Access to the data and information contained on this CD-ROM was developed using the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) utilized by the World Wide Web (WWW) project. Development of the CD-ROM documentation and user interface in HTML allows the user to access the information using WWW information browsers (i.e., Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape). To access the information contained on this disk with a WWW client browser, open the file 'index.htm' at the top-level directory of this CD-ROM with your browser. 

The HTML documentation is written utilizing some HTML 3.0 enhancements. The disk should be viewable by all WWW browsers but may not properly format on some older WWW browsers. Also, there are some links to U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) websites and to those of other organizations on this CD-ROM. These links are only accessible if access to the Internet is available when browsing the CD-ROM, and if those linked sites are operating.

BACKGROUND

In 1962, Congress authorized the Continental Margin Program, a joint program between the U.S. Geological Survey and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to conduct a geological reconnaissance investigation of the continental shelf and slope off the Atlantic coast of the United States (Emery and Schlee, 1963). As part of this program approximately 3800 stations were organized on an 18-km grid that extended from the Canadian border to the southern tip of Florida (see Hathaway, 1971). Bottom photography was conducted at many of these stations in conjunction with sediment sampling for grain size, mineralogy, geochemistry, and biology. The purpose of this report is to release digital versions of these bottom photographs in a gallery that can be visualized geographically. 

There are three top-level files and four top-level directories contained on  this CD-ROM. The top-level files are:

1.) index.htm - This file is intended to be the starting point for CD-ROM access. It is written in the Hyper-Text Markup Language utilized by the World Wide Web (WWW) project and must be opened with a WWW browser. Once opened, the user may browse the CD-ROM's contents as they would browse pages from the WWW.

2.) readme.htm (this file) - Contains a description of this CD-ROM and may be viewed by the user with any World Wide Web browser.

3.) readme.txt (ASCII version of this file) - This file contains a description of this CD-ROM and may be viewed or printed by the user with any system program capable of opening an ASCII text file.

There are three main directories on this CD-ROM. These directories include:

1. Directory htmldocs/ - This directory contains the HTML files and supporting graphics to allow the user access to the CD-ROM via any World Wide Web browser.  This directory includes the following directories and various unspecified sub-directories.

bphotos/ - HTML formatted pages containing the bottom photographs.  There is a single HTML page for each station location that includes the a thumbnail of the bottom photo and links to a larger, browse photograph and a 300 dpi, full resolution version of the image.

creports/ - HTML formatted pages containing the cruise reports

ebrowser/ - bibliographies for specific chapters

gphotos/ - contains the HTML formatted pages for the gallery photos

icons/ - images used as icons in the HTML pages

images/ - contains full-scale versions of the  browse graphics and other images used in the formatting of the HTML pages

2. Directory tables/ - Contains the bottom photograph station location table.  The station table is available in either an ASCII text file or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

3. Directory data/ - This directory contains the bottom photos (bphotos) ArcView shapefile and additional data layers (themes) used to create the ArcView project file.  Metadata documentation describing each of the data layers are contained in the individual directories. 

bphotos/ - This directory contains the station bottom photographs.  The bottom photographs have been archived as full-resolution, 300dpi JPEG images.  Two additional sub-directories, browse and thumb, are also located here.   The browse images are approximately 800 pixels wide and the thumb images are 200 pixels wide.  These images are used as thumbnail and browse images in the HTML pages.

basemap/ - This directory contains the miscellaneous ArcView shapefiles used to create the GIS project file.

imagery/ - This directory contains the raster image data layer. 

Software Requirements

This CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory) has been produced in accordance with the ISO 9660 CD-ROM Standard and is therefore capable of being read on any computing platform that has appropriate CD-ROM driver software installed. No specific software is required to access this CD-ROM, nor is any software provided as part of the CD-ROM.

The HTML documentation is written utilizing some HTML 3.0 enhancements. The disk should be viewable by all WWW browsers but may not properly format on some older WWW browsers. To view the entire contents of the disk, the user's browser should be JAVA enabled, but it is not required to simply browse the disk's contents.

For those people who wish to access the disk and do not have a World Wide Web browser available, they may do so by browsing the disk via their computer's operating system.

The bottom photographs were originally scanned and saved in TIFF format.  The images were later converted and saved as JPEG images to reduce space requirement.  These images may be read and processed by any image/photo processing package capable of reading the JPEG format.  These programs include Corel PhotoPaint, Adobe Photoshop, PaintShop Pro and XV.

The data layers/themes and imagery archived on this disk are intended to be used in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS).  Most notably for the data coverages the GIS of choice has been ESRI's ArcView, and the data have been stored in formats supported by this software package. 

One raster image of the project view area is included.  This image is stored in geotiff format. The image may be read by any program capable of reading the TIFF format. Although some programs do not interpret the additional geotiff tags, the image may still be viewed. For those software packages that do not process the geotiff tags properly and where the user wishes to georeference the images, a separate georeference report, which contains the necessary information, is available for each image.

DISCLAIMER

This Compact Disc-Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) publication was prepared by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.  Reference therein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. Any views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

Although all data published on this CD-ROM have been used by the USGS, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the USGS as to the accuracy of the data and related materials and/or the functioning of the software. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the USGS in the use of this data, software, or related materials.