Monterey Bay, California

Work through 1999

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is an offshore natural resource of vital interest to the people of California because of its extraordinary, unspoiled, natural beauty and the diversity of its bountiful marine life. Although close to the large population center around San Francisco Bay, it remains a pristine environment as yet little modified from its natural state. As a first step toward preserving this environment, USGS scientists--in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--are compiling an inventory of the Sanctuary's natural resources to better understand the links between the living resources and the physical environment, and man's potential modifying effects.

PRODUCTS:

• Monterey Bay project description pages
• Hydrocarbons and Fluid Venting
• Seafloor Morphology of Monterey Bay
• Seafloor Image Map of the Monterey Bay Region
• Fact Sheet "Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary -- Geological Processes and Framework" (1992)

RESOURCES:

• Internet map server - dynamic data layers
• Continental shelf GIS for the MBNMS
• Año Nuevo to Santa Cruz - A Photographic Tour of the Coastline
• Seafloor Image Map of the Monterey Bay Region
• Marine Geology special volume
• Seafloor Rocks and Sediments of the Continental Shelf From Monterey Bay to Point Sur
• Core Descriptions, Core Photographs, Physical Property Logs and Surface Textural Data of Sediment Cores Recovered from the Continental Shelf of the MBNMS

CRUISES:

• 1995 currents and sediment transport studies in Monterey Submarine Canyon
• 1996 box-coring and side-scan cruises from the R/V McArthur
• 1996 side-scan cruise on the R/V McArthur
• 1996 current meter deployment cruises on the R/V McGaw