Single-channel high-resolution seismic data from the northern Gulf of Mexico Upper Continental Slope

During the spring of 1976, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted detailed studies of 15 areas of possible instability on the upper Continental Slope in the northern Gulf of Mexico (fig. 1). Each study area was several square miles in area and included all or part of a possibly unstable feature. Such features had been identified from a previous high-resolution seismic-reflection survey consisting of 18,000 km of survey track made exclusively for the USGS by Western Geophysical Company in 1975.

Each of the detailed studies consists of a finely gridded high-resolution seismic survey, a geologic sketch map of surface and shallow subsurface features based on these data, and piston cores taken from carefully selected locations. The seismic records, totaling 5,000 km of mainly high-resolution sparker data, were collected during the cruises of FAY-011, -012, -013, and -014, and are available on 35-mm microfilm. Geologic and geotechnical data from the piston cores are also available (Booth, 1979).