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Figure 1. Map showing tracklines of cruise ASTR75–June in eastern Rhode Island Sound and cruise AST–80–6B in southern Rhode Island Sound.

Figure 2. Map of 15-minute and start- and end-of-line navigation fixes from cruise ASTR75–June in eastern Rhode Island Sound.

Figure 3. Map of 15-minute and start- and end-of-line navigation fixes from cruise AST–80–6B in southern Rhode Island Sound.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted two high-resolution seismic-reflection surveys onboard the research vessel (R/V) Asterias in Rhode Island Sound (RIS) during 1975 and 1980 (fig. 1). Cruise ASTR75–June collected over 600 km of seismic data from eastern RIS and Vineyard Sound in 1975. Cruise AST–80–6B collected over 200 km of seismic data from southern RIS and the waters south of Martha's Vineyard. The data from these surveys were used to determine the local geologic units and stratigraphy and, in eastern RIS, evaluate mineral resources (O'Hara and Oldale, 1980; U.S. Geological Survey, 1980). The original seismic records were generated in analog form and are archived at the USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center's Data Library. To make the data more readily accessible to the public and to help preserve the original paper records, the seismic lines were scanned and converted to digital form; they are available as 300-dpi black and white Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) images, low-resolution grayscale Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) preview images, 200-dpi grayscale Portable Network Graphics (PNG) images, and SEG-Y seismic-data files (Barry and others, 1975). Navigation data from each survey are available in space-delimited text and ESRI shapefile formats; trackline data are available in Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI), shapefile format (figs. 2 and 3). The purpose of this report is to supplement and complement previous work that provided seismic-reflection profiles, core logs, photographs, and navigational data in digital form for Long Island, Block Island, and Rhode Island Sounds (Poppe and others, 2002; McMullen and others, 2009).