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<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>Joseph W. Long</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Nathaniel G. Plant</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Molly R. McLaughlin</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Rangley C. Mickey</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Patricia (Soupy) Dalyander</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2015</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Oil that comes into the surf zone following spills, such as occurred during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="Deepwater Horizon"&gt;DWH&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;) blowout, can mix with local sediment to form heavier-than-water sand and oil agglomerates (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="sand and oil agglomerates"&gt;SOAs&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;), at times in the form of mats a few centimeters thick and tens of meters long. Smaller agglomerates that form in situ or pieces that break off of larger mats, sometimes referred to as surface residual balls (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="surface residual balls"&gt;SRBs&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;), range in size from sand-sized grains to patty-shaped pieces several centimeters (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="centimeter"&gt;cm&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;) in diameter. These mobile&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="sand and oil agglomerates"&gt;SOAs&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;can cause beach oiling for extended periods following the spill, on the scale of years as in the case of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="Deepwater Horizon"&gt;DWH&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;. Limited research, including a prior effort by the U.S. Geological Survey (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="United States Geological Survey"&gt;USGS&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;) investigating&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="sand and oil agglomerate"&gt;SOA&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;mobility, alongshore transport, and seafloor interaction using numerical model output, focused on the physical dynamics of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="sand and oil agglomerates"&gt;SOAs&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;. To address this data gap, we constructed artificial sand and oil agglomerates (&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="artificial sand and oil agglomerates"&gt;aSOAs&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;) with sand and paraffin wax to mimic the size and density of genuine&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="sand and oil agglomerates"&gt;SOAs&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;. These&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="artificial sand and oil agglomerates"&gt;aSOAs&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;were deployed in the nearshore off the coast of St. Petersburg, Florida, during a field experiment to investigate their movement and seafloor interaction. This report presents the methodology for constructing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="artificial sand and oil agglomerates"&gt;aSOAs&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;and describes the field experiment. Data acquired during the field campaign, including videos and images of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;abbr title="artificial sand and oil agglomerate"&gt;aSOA&lt;/abbr&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;movement in the nearshore (1.5-meter and 0.5-meter water depth) and in the swash zone, are also presented in this report.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.3133/ofr20151057</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>U.S. Geological Survey</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Field observations of artificial sand and oil agglomerates</dc:title>
  <dc:type>reports</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>