FILE: readme.txt U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Open-File Report 2009-1003 Digital Seismic-Reflection Data from Eastern Rhode Island Sound and Vicinity, 1975-1980 Katherine McMullen U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program 384 Woods Hole Road Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598 Lawrence Poppe U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program 384 Woods Hole Road Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598 Nancy Soderberg U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program 384 Woods Hole Road Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598 BACKGROUND During 1975 and 1980, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted two seismic-reflection surveys in Rhode Island Sound (RIS) aboard the research vessel Asterias: cruise ASTR75–June surveyed eastern RIS in 1975 and cruise AST–80–6B surveyed southern RIS in 1980. Data from these surveys were recorded in analog form and archived at the USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center's Data Library. In response to recent interest in the geology of RIS and in an effort to make the data more readily accessible while preserving the original paper records, the seismic data from these cruises were scanned and converted to black and white Tagged Image File Format and grayscale Portable Network Graphics images and SEG-Y data files. Navigation data were converted from U.S. Coast Guard Long Range Aids to Navigation time delays to latitudes and longitudes that are available in Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., shapefile format and as eastings and northings in space-delimited text format. This report complements two others that contain analog seismic-reflection data from RIS (McMullen and others, 2009) and Long Island and Block Island Sounds (Poppe and others, 2002) and were converted into digital form. DVD-ROM CONTENTS This DVD-ROM, which is Disk B of a 2-disk set, contains two top-level files and two top-level directories. The top-level files are: 1.) readme.txt (this file) - This file contains a description of this DVD-ROM and may be viewed or printed by the user with any system program capable of opening an ASCII text file. 2.) of2009-1003_metadata.txt - This file contains reference information on this report and may be viewed or printed by the user with any system program capable of opening an ASCII text file. The two main directories include: 1.) Directory eris_png/ This directory contains the 200-dpi, grayscale PNG images of seismic data collected in eastern Rhode Island Sound on cruise ASTR75-June, along with appropriate metadata. 2.) Directory sris_png/ This directory contains the 200-dpi, grayscale PNG images of seismic data collected in southern Rhode Island Sound on cruise AST-80-6B, along with appropriate metadata. TECHNICAL NOTES This disk has been tested for use on computers having Windows XP and Macintosh operating systems. Access to the data and information contained in this report was developed using the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) utilized by the World Wide Web (WWW) project. This allows the user to access the information using WWW information browsers (i.e., Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox). To start, open the file 'index.html' at the top-level directory of disc A with your browser. There are Internet links to USGS collaborators and websites included in this report. These links are only accessible if access to the Internet is available when browsing the DVD-ROM, and if those linked sites are operating. DISCLAIMER The datasets contained in this report have been approved for release and publication by the USGS. Although these datasets have been subjected to rigorous review and are substantially complete, the USGS reserves the right to revise the data pursuant to further analysis and review. Furthermore, they are released on condition that neither the USGS nor the United States Government may be held liable for any damages resulting from their authorized or unauthorized use. Any use of trade names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.