Data Catalog

Data provided in this publication include geographic coordinates to allow for integration into a Geographic Information System (GIS).  A GIS is defined as a system of hardware and software to support the display, manipulation, and analysis of spatial data for mapping and complex data solving.  This integrated package provides researchers the ability to integrate, analyze, and map the various data sets as an aid to scientific research, and policy-making decisions tied to the environment.

The five individual sediment/seafloor data layers along with additional basemap data layers have been compiled into an ArcView ™ project file (la.apr) that is located at the top-level directory of this publication. The project file is intended to be opened and the data viewed with the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) ArcView™ or ArcGIS™ software. The project file has been modified to reflect relative paths to the archived data as organized for this publication.  To open the supplied project file and view the datasets, the user must start the appropriate software, navigate to the top-level of this publication and open the project file (la.apr).

For those who do not have the ESRI software or a compatible GIS data browser available on their computer, a free viewer, ArcExplorer™, is available from ESRI. Please note that the ArcExplorer™ software is limited to the Microsoft Windows operating system. 

Each GIS data layer from this publication is cataloged in the table below for easy access. The individual data layers are described and include the shapefile name (e.g. _EXT is extracted data ) which is linked to a browse graphic showing the data layer extent and coverage.

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata for the individual data layers is  provided in three versions (HTML, FAQ, and text). Selecting associated metadata files from the table below will open the information in a new browser window.

A 'zip' compressed, downloadable archive file containing the ArcView™ shapefile for each data layer is also provided. Compressed downloadable files were created using the Windows program WINZIP v8.0. For those users who do not have software capable of uncompressing the archived zip files, they may obtain a free version of the software from Winzip Computing, Inc. or Pkware, Inc.  In addition to the ArcView™ shapefile, the sediment data layers are available in an ASCII text format and a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet format to allow users who may not have access to GIS software to read the shapefile and examine the datasets.  The first record of the ASCII file and Excel spreadsheet contains the name of the data fields for that file.