Archive of Chirp Subbottom Profile Data Collected in 2017 from the Louisiana Chenier Plain

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center conducted nearshore geophysical surveys around the eastern and western Chenier Plain, Louisiana, in 2017. Data were collected under the Barrier Island Coastal Monitoring (BICM) program, an ongoing collaboration between the State of Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), the University of New Orleans (UNO) Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences (PIES), and the USGS. The objective of this study was to document the changing morphology of the coastal environment by compiling historical shoreline bathymetric datasets and comparing them to bathymetric data collected during the BICM project. At the same time, subsurface geophysical data were collected to investigate the geomorphology and geologic controls on barrier-shoreline evolution. Collecting geophysical data can help researchers to identify relationships between the geologic history of the barrier shoreline and its present-day morphology and sediment distribution.

This data release serves as an archive of subbottom profile and navigation data acquired offshore of the Chenier Plain, during USGS Field Activity Numbers 2017-323-FA (Project ID: 17BIM01, June 2-10) and 2017-324-FA (17BIM05, July 2). Data products, including unprocessed digital chirp subbottom data, trackline map, navigation files, processed profile images, geographic information system (GIS) files and formal Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata, and field logs are provided.