Archive of Digitized Analog Boomer Seismic Reflection Data Collected from the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Intersea 1980

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program (CMHRP) has actively collected geophysical and sedimentological data in the northern Gulf of Mexico for several decades, including shallow subsurface data in the form of high-resolution seismic reflection profiles (HRSP). Prior to the mid-1990s most HRSP data were collected in analog format as paper rolls of continuous profiles up to 25 meters long. As part of the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program (NGGDPP, https://datapreservation.usgs.gov/), and in collaboration with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Marine Minerals Program, scientists from the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (USGS-SPCMSC) converted analog paper records to digital format using a large-format continuous scanner. The scanned image files were subsequently processed to fix distortions and crop out blank spaces prior to exporting as industry standard Society of Exploration Geophysicists data exchange (SEG-Y) formatted files.

This data release serves as an archive of HRSP profiles annotated with header information, converted SEG-Y files, navigation data, and cruise trackline shapefiles. The HRSP data were collected using a sparker seismic system onboard the research vessel (R/V) Amarillo and R/V Sea Raider. The two vessels collected seismic data along the northern Gulf of Mexico ranging from west of Sabine Pass, Texas to south of Marsh Island, Louisiana. The survey occurred from July 9 to September 26, 1980. Data collection and processing methods are described in USGS Data Series 1047 (Bosse and others, 2017).