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Mapping Program

In June 1998 the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) completed surveys of selected areas of Monterey Bay, California.

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 because they had installed the EM300 system 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 high speeds in water ranging from shelf to abyssal depths.

The data from the survey are included on these web pages.

Monterey Bay Survey Areas

Choose from the following survey area list or click on the map area to view images and survey details.

Final processing of the data was done using the software package MB-System. 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 has been compiled and is available from MBARI. The MBARI Mapping Team includes Gerry Hatcher, David Caress, Norman Maher, David Clague, H. Gary Greene, and Nancy Barr all from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). Some of the descriptive material in these web pages is also covered in Greene et. al. 2001, which includes scientific interpretation.

The Sur Platform and Monterey Shelf between Moss Landing and Pfeiffer Point were surveyed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) from the same ship and at the same time as the MBARI multibeam survey.  The other surveys were collected by Gerry Hatcher, Norman Maher, and H. Gary Greene (all from MBARI), and the mapping crew from C&C Technologies.

References 

For more information, or for the GIS data on CD-ROM, email cdrom@mbari.org.