Open-File Report 03-002, OFR 03-002

Texture, Carbonate Content, and Preliminary Maps of Surficial Sediments, Flower Garden Banks Area, Northwest Gulf of Mexico Outer Shelf, USGS Open-File Report 03-002

Home / Contents / Introduction / Setting / Methods / Previous Work / Discussion / Conclusions / Acknowledgments / References
Appendices: I. Field Report / II. Sediment Analysis / III. Table / Graphic / IV. Figures / V. Fig. Summary / VI. GIS/Metadata

FGB Figures

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Flower Garden Banks

bounds wstglf - Location map of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sancutary in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico.
Click figure to enlarge (167 kb).

Flower Garden Banks Seafloor Type Interpretation

FGB_interp - Shaded relief maps of the East & West Flower Garden Banks overlain by the sea-floor type interpretation based on multibeam backscatter, multibeam bathymetry and sediment grab samples.
Click figure to enlarge (188 kb).

Flower Garden Banks Folk Sediment Classification

FGB_xih - Sediment type analysis of samples from the Flower Garden Banks region. The sample locations are overlayed on the bottom interpretation and multibeam bathymetry based shaded relief.
Click figure to enlarge (296 kb).

FGB_cih - CaCO3 analysis of samples from the Flower Garden Banks region. The sample locations are overlayed on the bottom interpretation and multibeam bathymetry based shaded relief.
Click figure to enlarge (264 kb).

East Flower Garden Bank


ef_basic Mulitbeam backscatter with sample locations and 50m contours. Click figure to enlarge (314 kb).	ef_interp Sea-floor interpretation based on multibeam backscatter, multibeam bathymetry and sediment samples. Click figure to enlarge (291 kb).

*ef_x...* - EFGB, Sediment Textures of sea-floor samples	*ef_c...* - EFGB, % CaCO3 for the sediment samples.

*ef_xbs* Samples on multibeam backscatter. Click figure to enlarge (627 kb).	*ef_cbs* Samples on multibeam backscatter. Click figure to enlarge (570 kb).


*ef_xbsh* Samples on multibeam backscatter over the shaded relief. Click figure to enlarge (547 kb).	*ef_cbsh* Samples on multibeam backscatter over the shaded relief. Click figure to enlarge (496 kb).


*ef_xbyh* Samples on multibeam bathymetry over the shaded relief. Click figure to enlarge (307 kb).	*ef_cbyh* Samples on multibeam bathymetry over the shaded relief. Click figure to enlarge (276 kb).

West Flower Garden Bank


wf_basic Mulitbeam backscatter with sample locations and 50m contours. Click figure to enlarge (359 kb).	wf_interp Sea-floor interpretation based on multibeam backscatter, multibeam bathymetry and sediment samples. Click figure to enlarge (339 kb).

*wf_x...* - WFGB, Sediment Textures of sea-floor samples	*wf_c...* - WFGB, % CaCO3 for the sediment samples.

*wf_xbs* Samples on multibeam backscatter. Click figure to enlarge (849 kb).	*wf_cbs* Samples on multibeam backscatter. Click figure to enlarge (812 kb).


*wf_xbsh* Samples on multibeam backscatter over the shaded relief. Click figure to enlarge (720 kb).	*wf_cbsh* Samples on multibeam backscatter over the shaded relief. Click figure to enlarge (689 kb).


*wf_xbyh* Samples on multibeam bathymetry over the shaded relief. Click figure to enlarge (345 kb).	*wf_cbyh* Samples on multibeam bathymetry over the shaded relief. Click figure to enlarge (317 kb).

Notes about these figures:

These figures of the East and West Flower Garden Regions were created using ArcMap 8.2 (part of ESRI's ArcGIS mapping software).

ArcGIS layer (.lyr) files are included within most of the zipped data files (.zip) found on the data download page. The zipped data files ferltxtr.shp, caco3.shp, ef_interp.shp and wf_interp.shp also include ArcView legend files (.avl) which were created using ArcView 3.2a.

The East and West Flower Garden sediment texture figures are a series of three figures for each area. The figures ef_xbs and wf_xbs contain the shapefile ferltxtr.shp over the backscatter intensity image for the specific areas. The backscatter intensity layer is an 8-bit TIFF image, originally represented as a grayscale series of backscatter intensity values of 0 to 255. For these figures a color ramp was used where warm colors represent the higher backscatter values and cool colors represent the lower backscatter values. The figures ef_xbsh and wf_xbsh contain the ferltxtr.shp shapefile on the pseudo-colored backscatter intensity draped over the shaded relief. The shaded relief was created by converting the 5-meter multibeam bathymetry (Dartnell and Gardner, 1999) to a hillshade grid using ArcMap's Spatial Analyst. The hillshade grids (ef_hlshd and wf_hlshd) were created using Spatial Analyst's default settings (Azimuth: 315; Altitude: 45; Z factor: 1). The figures ef_xbyh and wf_xbyh contain the ferltxtr.shp shapefile on the 5-meter multibeam bathymetry, which is then draped over the shaded relief. The bathymetry grid has been color-coded according to depth, where light blues represent shallower areas and the darker blue represents the deeper regions. For those figure that include the shaded relief, the draped layer (bathymetry or backscatter) is set to display as 50% transparent, allowing the underlying hillshade to be seen and creating the illusion of textured relief.

The East and West Flower Garden %CaCO3 figures were created in a similar manner to the one described above for the sediment texture figures. The same layers for pseudo-colored backscatter intensity (ef_cbs and wf_cbs), hillshade (ef_cbsh and wf_cbsh)and multibeam bathymetry (ef_xbyh and wf_xbyh) were used in these figures beneath the shapefile caco3.shp.

Home / Contents / Introduction / Setting / Methods / Previous Work / Discussion / Conclusions / Acknowledgments / References
Appendices: I. Field Report / II. Sediment Analysis / III. Table / Graphic / IV. Figures / V. Fig. Summary / VI. GIS/Metadata

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