USGS CMG 87017 Metadata

To assess the transport and fate of drilling muds
and cuttings discharged from production platforms along the California coast.
The continental shelf between Pt. Conception and Pt. San Luis is rather narrow,
only 10-15 km wide. Platform Julius will be located near the edge of the shelf
in water about 150 m dee; water less than 100 m deep is less than 5 km onshore
and water greater than 500 m deep is less than 15 km offshore. Muds and cuttings
discharged from these platforms may initially settle over a wide range of water
depths where the extent and frequency of sediment movement, as well as the
processes causing movement, will vary significantly. The field measurements
described here are designed to describe the near-bottom flow and sediment
movement in these differenet sedimentary environments.

bedforms, bottom features, vertical profile of sediment grain size, cross-shelf 
hydrographic sections, temperature, salinity and suspended material.

Current moorings were deployed at three sites across the shelf and
slope in water depths of 83, 148, and 415 m, with instruments at approximately 6
and 20 meters above bottom (mab) atstations A, B, and C, and an additional
instrument at 144 m at station C. All instruments at 6 and 20 mab measured
current, temperature, conductivity and light transmission. Geoprobes were
deployed at sites A and B; these specialized bottom instrument systems measure
curretn at 5 levels above the seafloor, every few hours. At each mooring site a
limited side-scan sonarsurvey was conducted to map any bedforms or other bottom
featurs. Box cores were collected at inshore of Santa Lucia Bank. The box cores
were fitted witha special intev als to obtain a detailed vertical profile of
sediment grain size in the upper 2 cm of the bottom. Two cross-shelf
hydrographic sections were made to map the regional distribution of temperature,
salinity and suspended material in the region of the moored observations