Outer Cape Cod

The Outer Cape Cod survey area is located between Provincetown and Chatham along the east shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A geophysical survey of the sea floor was carried out during the fall of 1998 using a SIMRAD EM-1000 multibeam echo sounder. A cruise to collect bottom sediment samples and to obtain bottom video was conducted in the summer of 2004.

The multibeam escho-sounder data, which cover a narrow band of the sea floor extending from Provincetown around the northern tip of Cape Cod and south southeastward to off Monomoy Island, were collected during transits between concurrent mapping projects in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and Great South Channel. Although originally collected to maximize the use of time aboard ship, these data provide a fundamental framework for research and management activities in this part of the Gulf of Maine, show the composition and terrain of the seabed, and provide information on sediment transport and benthic habitat. These data and interpretations also support ongoing modeling studies of the lower Cape's aquifer system and of erosional hotspots along the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Cooperators: Cape Cod National Seashore, National Park Service (NPS) Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM)

Overview the Outer Cape Cod Survey area showing shaded relief bathymetry colored by depth. Click on figure for larger image.

Project Status: Complete

Maps and Report published as:
Poppe, L.J., Paskevich, V.F., Butman, B., Ackerman, S.D., Danforth, W.W., Foster, D.S., Blackwood, D.S., 2006, Geological Interpretation of bathymetric and backscatter imagery of the sea floor off eastern Cape Cod: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1048, DVD-ROM. Also available online at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1048/

For more information:

Larry Poppe
U.S. Geological Survey
Woods Hole Science
384 Woods Hole Rd.
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1598
lpoppe@usgs.gov