In April 1998 the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) completed surveys of selected areas offshore of Santa Barbara, California. The EM300 multibeam survey covers the central and western section of the Santa Barbara Basin, which forms the northernmost part of the California continental borderland province. The morphology of the continental borderland has been extensively investigated using high-resolution deep and intermediate penetration seismic reflection and sidescan sonar techniques that provided detailed topographic information along selected transects. The MBARI EM300 data set constitutes the first multibeam swath-bathymetric survey of the entire basin.
We used the recently developed Simrad EM300 multibeam system to collect bathymetry and backscatter data. We contracted with C&C Technologies to run the system which they had installed on a contracted vessel, the M/V Ocean Alert. The 30 kHz EM300 system, because it is hull-mounted, allowed us to collect georeferenced high-resolution bathymetric and sidescan data at speeds of eight to 10 knots in water ranging from shelf to abyssal depths.
Santa Barbara Survey Areas
Choose from the following survey area list or click on the map area to view images, survey details, and data file information.
The swath data have been deposited at the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) and are available there for free download. A CD-ROM set that contains images and grids for use with GIS was compiled and is available from MBARI. The Mapping Team includes Nancy Barr, David Caress, David Clague, Peter Eichhubl, H. Gary Greene, and Norman Maher, all from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). The data were collected by Gerry Hatcher and Norman Maher from MBARI and the mapping crew from C&C Technologies.
Mass wasting in Santa Barbara Basin
For more information, or for the GIS data on CD-ROM, email cdrom@mbari.org.