In response to the 1992 creation of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS), the United States Geological Survey (USGS) initiated a multiyear investigation of the Sanctuary continental margin. As part of the investigative effort, this report summarizes the shipboard procedures, subsequent laboratory analyses, and data results from three seafloor sampling cruises conducted on the continental shelf between Monterey peninsula, CA and San Francisco, CA. The cruises were conducted in 1995 aboard the NOAA Ship McArthur (M-1-95-MB) and in 1995 and 1997 aboard the R/V Point Sur (P-2-95-MB and P-1-97-MB). Scientists and representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), and the San Jose State University Moss Landing Marine Laboratory (SJSU-MLML) supported the research effort.
In this report we present sediment descriptions, sediment textural data, physical property logs, station metadata, and photographs of subcores from a total of three hundred and eighty four sample stations. At these sites either a box corer, MultiCore™r, grab sampler or a combination of these sampling devices were used to collect the sea floor sediments. The report is presented in an interactive web-based format with each mapped core station linked to the corresponding description and photo, and to a spreadsheet of surface texture and other sampling data.
