Collect multibeam bathymetry, acoustic-backscatter, water-column backscatter, and magnetics data along the slope of the Cascadia margin to fill in gaps in hi-resolution multibeam imagery for subduction zone hazard characterization
Location
Pacific Ocean, Northern California, Oregon, United States
Summary
Fiarweather successfully mapped remaining data gaps within Eel Basin and along the shelf edge. No marine magnetic data were collected, only multibeam bathymetry, backscatter, and water column data. Data will be released through NEIC.
Homeported in Ketchikan, Alaska, NOAA Ship Fairweather is a hydrographic survey vessel that maps the ocean to support safe navigation and commerce. Fairweather’s officers, technicians, and scientists collect data that NOAA cartographers use to create and update the nation’s nautical charts with ever-increasing precision.
This dataset contains the locations of 902 methane cold seeps that were detected in acoustic water-column backscatter collected by the U.S. Geological Survey between 2018 to 2021. Rising bubbles emitting from methane seeps on the seafloor can be detected acoustically with multibeam echo sounding sonar used to collected seafloor bathymetric mapping data, which the USGS and NOAA have cooperatively collected along the Cascadia Margin offshore of northern California and Oregon for several years.
