MULTIBEAM MAPPING AND EXPLORATION OF THE CONTINENTAL SHELF EDGE

In March 2006, the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster conducted a cruise on the continental shelf edge off South Carolina to calibrate a new Kongsberg Simrad multibeam sonar system. Students from the College of Charleston (CofC) Geology Department assisted with bathymetric data collection and have begun preliminary processing and evaluation of identified seafloor features, using Caris HIPS/SIPS software. The data are being contextualized with previously quantified shelf-edge sidescan sonar and sub-bottom profiler data from the region collected during CofC's Transect Program cruises and NOAA Ocean Exploration submersible expeditions. The most prominent feature discovered is an outcropping hard-ground structure approximately 650 by 150 m, with 10 m vertical relief. It is oriented parallel to shore along the shelf edge in water depths of 60 m. Possible geological and biological influences on the structure's origin and morphology are being explored.