Geologist Emeritus, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
Science and Products
Multibeam bathymetry and acoustic backscatter from the Alaskan region, Extended Continental Shelf Project, 2011 field season: Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea
Gravity cores from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, San Francisco Bay, California
California State Waters Map Series: offshore of Refugio Beach, California
California State Waters Map Series: Offshore of Refugio Beach, California
California State Waters Map Series: offshore of Coal Oil Point, California
California State Waters Map Series: Offshore of Coal Oil Point, California
California State Waters Map Series: offshore of Santa Barbara, California
California State Waters Map Series: offshore of Carpinteria, California
California State Waters Map Series: Offshore of Carpinteria, California
California State Waters Map Series--Offshore of Ventura, California
California State Waters Map Series — Offshore of Ventura, California
California State Waters Map Series: Offshore of Santa Barbara, California
California State Waters Map Series — Hueneme Canyon and vicinity, California
Earthquakes and faults in the San Francisco Bay area (1970-2003)
Shoreline retreat of the Corte Madera marshes, 1853 to 2016, Marin County, California
Polygons of global undersea features for geographic searches
Description of gravity cores from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, San Francisco Bay, California
Depth-to-basement, sediment-thickness, and bathymetry data for the deep-sea basins offshore of Washington, Oregon, and California
Late Holocene sedimentary environments of south San Francisco Bay, California, illustrated in gravity cores
Greenhouse gases generated from the anaerobic biodegradation of natural offshore asphalt seepages in southern California
Shapefile for Coastal Zone Management Program counties of the United States and its territories, 2009 (CZMP_counties_2009.shp)
Heavy mineral analysis for assessing the provenance of sandy sediment in the San Francisco Bay Coastal System
Integration of bed characteristics, geochemical tracers, current measurements, and numerical modeling for assessing the provenance of beach sand in the San Francisco Bay Coastal System
Over 150 million m3 of sand-sized sediment has disappeared from the central region of the San Francisco Bay Coastal System during the last half century. This enormous loss may reflect numerous anthropogenic influences, such as watershed damming, bay-fill development, aggregate mining, and dredging. The reduction in Bay sediment also appears to be linked to a reduction in sediment supply and recent
Seafloor geology and benthic habitats, San Pedro Shelf, southern California
Seafloor samples, videography, still photography, and real-time descriptions of geologic and biologic constituents at or near the seafloor of the San Pedro Shelf, southern California, advance the study of natural and man-made processes on this coastal area off the metropolitan Los Angeles area. Multibeam echo-sounder data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1998 and 1999 guided sampling and
Modeling of depth to base of Last Glacial Maximum and seafloor sediment thickness for the California State Waters Map Series, eastern Santa Barbara Channel, California
Macondo-1 well oil-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mesozooplankton from the northern Gulf of Mexico
Non-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
- Data
Multibeam bathymetry and acoustic backscatter from the Alaskan region, Extended Continental Shelf Project, 2011 field season: Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea
This publication releases swath bathymetry and backscatter datasets derived from multibeam bathymetric data acquired by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on the R/V Marcus G. Langseth legs MGL1108 (transit) and MGL1109 in the Gulf of Alaska, and MGL1111 in the Bering Sea. Leg MGL1108 data were combined with leg MGL1109 data during processing. These data were acquired with a Kongsberg Simrad EM-122Gravity cores from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, San Francisco Bay, California
This data release contains information on gravity cores that were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in the area of San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, California in 1990, 1991, and 2000. Ten (10) pdf files describe gravity cores that were split, photographed, and imaged by X-rays, and another pdf file contains a core-log legend. In addition, a shapefile (sanpablo_spls.shp) provides sample co - Maps
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California State Waters Map Series: offshore of Refugio Beach, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, and visualization of swath sonarCalifornia State Waters Map Series: Offshore of Refugio Beach, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, and visualization of swath sonarCalifornia State Waters Map Series: offshore of Coal Oil Point, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, andCalifornia State Waters Map Series: Offshore of Coal Oil Point, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, andCalifornia State Waters Map Series: offshore of Santa Barbara, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, andCalifornia State Waters Map Series: offshore of Carpinteria, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, andCalifornia State Waters Map Series: Offshore of Carpinteria, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, andCalifornia State Waters Map Series--Offshore of Ventura, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, andCalifornia State Waters Map Series — Offshore of Ventura, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, andCalifornia State Waters Map Series: Offshore of Santa Barbara, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California’s State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, andCalifornia State Waters Map Series — Hueneme Canyon and vicinity, California
In 2007, the California Ocean Protection Council initiated the California Seafloor Mapping Program (CSMP), designed to create a comprehensive seafloor map of high-resolution bathymetry, marine benthic habitats, and geology within the 3-nautical-mile limit of California's State Waters. The CSMP approach is to create highly detailed seafloor maps through collection, integration, interpretation, andEarthquakes and faults in the San Francisco Bay area (1970-2003)
The map depicts both active and inactive faults and earthquakes magnitude 1.5 to 7.0 in the greater San Francisco Bay area. Twenty-two earthquakes magnitude 5.0 and greater are indicated on the map and listed chronologically in an accompanying table. The data are compiled from records from 1970-2003. The bathymetry was generated from a digital version of NOAA maps and hydrogeographic data for San - Publications
Filter Total Items: 72
Shoreline retreat of the Corte Madera marshes, 1853 to 2016, Marin County, California
The greater San Francisco Bay estuary, prior to human intervention, encompassed about 2,200 km2 of tidal and salt marshes. Over time, these areas became increasingly diked, developed, and altered from their natural state. In addition, natural forces are always driving a continually shifting equilibrium.This study area, the Corte Madera marshes, is a tidal marsh or wetland located in southeastern MAuthorsBradley A. Carkin, Robert E. Kayen, Florence L. WongPolygons of global undersea features for geographic searches
A shapefile of 311 undersea features from all major oceans and seas has been created as an aid for retrieving georeferenced information resources. Geospatial information systems with the capability to search user-defined, polygonal geographic areas will be able to utilize this shapefile or secondary products derived from it, such as linked data based on well-known text representations of the indivAuthorsStephen R. Hartwell, Dana K. Wingfield, Alan O. Allwardt, Frances L. Lightsom, Florence L. WongDescription of gravity cores from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, San Francisco Bay, California
Seventy-two gravity cores were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1990, 1991, and 2000 from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, California. The gravity cores collected within San Pablo Bay contain bioturbated laminated silts and sandy clays, whole and broken bivalve shells (mostly mussels), fossil tube structures, and fine-grained plant or wood fragments. Gravity cores from the channel walAuthorsDonald L. Woodrow, John L. Chin, Florence L. Wong, Theresa A. Fregoso, Bruce E. JaffeDepth-to-basement, sediment-thickness, and bathymetry data for the deep-sea basins offshore of Washington, Oregon, and California
Contours and derivative raster files of depth-to-basement, sediment-thickness, and bathymetry data for the area offshore of Washington, Oregon, and California are provided here as GIS-ready shapefiles and GeoTIFF files. The data were used to generate paper maps in 1992 and 1993 from 1984 surveys of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone by the U.S. Geological Survey for depth to basement and sediment thAuthorsFlorence L. Wong, Muriel S. GrimLate Holocene sedimentary environments of south San Francisco Bay, California, illustrated in gravity cores
Data are reported here from 51 gravity cores collected from the southern part of San Francisco Bay by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1990. The sedimentary record in the cores demonstrates a stable geographic distribution of facies and spans a few thousand years. Carbon-14 dating of the sediments suggests that sedimentation rates average about 1 mm/yr. The geometry of the bay floor and the characterAuthorsDonald L. Woodrow, Theresa A. Fregoso, Florence L. Wong, Bruce E. JaffeGreenhouse gases generated from the anaerobic biodegradation of natural offshore asphalt seepages in southern California
Significant offshore asphaltic deposits with active seepage occur in the Santa Barbara Channel offshore southern California. The composition and isotopic signatures of gases sampled from the oil and gas seeps reveal that the coexisting oil in the shallow subsurface is anaerobically biodegraded, generating CO2 with secondary CH4 production. Biomineralization can result in the consumption of as muchAuthorsT.D. Lorenson, Florence L. Wong, Peter Dartnell, Ray W. SliterShapefile for Coastal Zone Management Program counties of the United States and its territories, 2009 (CZMP_counties_2009.shp)
A shapefile of 492 Coastal Zone Management Program counties of the United States and its territories, current for the ground condition in 2009, has been extracted from the U.S. Census Bureau MAF/TIGER database. Geospatial information systems with the capability to search user-defined, polygonal geographic areas will be able to utilize this shapefile or secondary products derived from it, such as wAuthorsStephen R. Hartwell, Dana K. Wingfield, Alan O. Allwardt, Florence L. Wong, Frances L. LightsomHeavy mineral analysis for assessing the provenance of sandy sediment in the San Francisco Bay Coastal System
Heavy or high-specific gravity minerals make up a small but diagnostic component of sediment that is well suited for determining the provenance and distribution of sediment transported through estuarine and coastal systems worldwide. By this means, we see that surficial sand-sized sediment in the San Francisco Bay Coastal System comes primarily from the Sierra Nevada and associated terranes by wayAuthorsFlorence L. Wong, Donald L. Woodrow, Mary McGannIntegration of bed characteristics, geochemical tracers, current measurements, and numerical modeling for assessing the provenance of beach sand in the San Francisco Bay Coastal System
Over 150 million m3 of sand-sized sediment has disappeared from the central region of the San Francisco Bay Coastal System during the last half century. This enormous loss may reflect numerous anthropogenic influences, such as watershed damming, bay-fill development, aggregate mining, and dredging. The reduction in Bay sediment also appears to be linked to a reduction in sediment supply and recent
AuthorsPatrick L. Barnard, Amy C. Foxgrover, Edwin P.L. Elias, Li H. Erikson, James R. Hein, Mary McGann, Kira Mizell, Robert J. Rosenbauer, Peter W. Swarzenski, Renee K. Takesue, Florence L. Wong, Don WoodrowSeafloor geology and benthic habitats, San Pedro Shelf, southern California
Seafloor samples, videography, still photography, and real-time descriptions of geologic and biologic constituents at or near the seafloor of the San Pedro Shelf, southern California, advance the study of natural and man-made processes on this coastal area off the metropolitan Los Angeles area. Multibeam echo-sounder data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1998 and 1999 guided sampling and
AuthorsFlorence L. Wong, Peter Dartnell, Brian D. Edwards, Eleyne L. PhillipsModeling of depth to base of Last Glacial Maximum and seafloor sediment thickness for the California State Waters Map Series, eastern Santa Barbara Channel, California
Models of the depth to the base of Last Glacial Maximum and sediment thickness over the base of Last Glacial Maximum for the eastern Santa Barbara Channel are a key part of the maps of shallow subsurface geology and structure for offshore Refugio to Hueneme Canyon, California, in the California State Waters Map Series. A satisfactory interpolation of the two datasets that accounted for regional geAuthorsFlorence L. Wong, Eleyne L. Phillips, Samuel Y. Johnson, Ray W. SliterMacondo-1 well oil-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mesozooplankton from the northern Gulf of Mexico
Mesozooplankton (>200 μm) collected in August and September of 2010 from the northern Gulf of Mexico show evidence of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that distributions of PAHs extracted from mesozooplankton were related to the oil released from the ruptured British Petroleum Macondo-1 (M-1) well associated with the R/VDeepwater HorizAuthorsSiddhartha Mitra, David G. Kimmel, Jessica Snyder, Kimberly Scalise, Benjamin D. McGlaughon, Michael R. Roman, Ginger L. Jahn, James J. Pierson, Stephen B. Brandt, Joseph P. Montoya, Robert J. Rosenbauer, T.D. Lorenson, Florence L. Wong, Pamela L. CampbellNon-USGS Publications**
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.