Geological Characterization of Select Mississippi Shelf Sites

Abstract

This report documents results of a seabed survey in the Mississippi Bight conducted 16-22 December 2005 from the R/V Pelican. The objective of the survey was to find a site in proximity to the NRL Stennis in about 27 meters water depth with uniform soft clayey silt to silty clay sediments over the upper two meters of seabed profile for testing of an acoustic sediment classification system. This report documents the physical and geotechnical properties of the upper 2 meters of the sediments at the locations investigated. The top 10~50 cm of the sediments exhibits characteristics of storm deposits that can be readily interpreted as the results of Hurricane Katrina that passed through the study area on August 29, 2006. As a result of the storm, the study area is no longer composed of uniform soft sediments, but is covered with a 10~50-cm-thick deposit of thinly laminated sandy layers. In addition, the sediment cores contain records of historic catastrophic storms in the Mississippi Bight area.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 15, 2006
Accession Number
AD1111633

Entities

People

  • Chad Vaughan
  • Dale Bibee
  • Erin O’Reilly
  • Jan Watkins
  • Kristen Carbrey
  • Tabitha Erman
  • Yoko Furukawa

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Impedance
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • Environment
  • Frequency
  • Gamma Rays
  • Geology
  • Grain Size
  • High Density
  • High Energy
  • Hurricanes
  • Low Density
  • Materials
  • Military Research
  • Sediments
  • Shear Strength
  • Silt

Readers

  • Geotechnical Engineering.
  • Oceanography.