ROV cm-scale seafloor surveys at 1850 m depth in Monterey Canyon

This dataset contains 5-cm lateral resolution multibeam sonar bathymetry and 1-cm lateral resolution lidar bathymetry from ~1850 m water depth in Monterey Canyon, offshore Moss Landing, California. The data were acquired by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) aboard the R/V Western Flyer operated by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). The multibeam sonar and lidar data were collected using a Reson SeaBat 7125 400-kHz multibeam sonar and a 3D at Depth SL1 subsea lidar, respectively.

These surveys were all conducted between November 2015 and March 2017 as one component of the Coordinated Canyon Experiment (CCE) led by MBARI geologist Charlie Paull, in collaboration with researchers from the United States Geological Survey, the Ocean University of China, the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England, and the University of Hull, England.

For a detailed description of the methodology used to collect, process, and grid these data, please refer to the associated journal article: <This info will be updated once the paper is published>
 

The primary results from the CCE were described in:

Paull, C.K., Talling, P.J., Maier, K.L., Parsons, D., Xu, J., Caress, D.W., Gwiazda, R., Lundsten, E.M., Anderson, K., Barry, J.P., Chaffey, M., O'Reilly, T., Rosenberger, K.J., Gales, J.A., Kieft, B., McGann, M., Simmons, S.M., McCann, M., Sumner, E.J., Clare, M.A., Cartigny, J., (2018). Powerful turbidity currents driven by dense basal layers. Nature Communications, 9: 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06254-6

A general description of the CCE can be found in a 2017 MBARI annual report article: https://annualreport.mbari.org/2017/story/coordinated-canyon-experiment

This dataset contains the following gridded bathymetry data in both GeoTIFF and ESRI ASCII grid format (.asc) in WG84 Geographic (EPSG: 4326):

5-cm lateral resolution multibeam sonar bathymetry grids:

1. CCE_LASS_5cm_multibeam_MontereyCanyon_November2015
   • Multibeam bathymetry data collected between November 18 - 20, 2015
2. CCE_LASS_5cm_multibeam_MontereyCanyon_May2016
   • Multibeam bathymetry data collected between May 10 - 12, 2016
3. CCE_LASS_5cm_multibeam_MontereyCanyon_October2016
   • Multibeam bathymetry data collected between October 26 - 28, 2016
4. CCE_LASS_5cm_multibeam_MontereyCanyon_March2017
   • Multibeam bathymetry data collected between March 7 - 12th, 2016

1-cm lateral resolution lidar bathymetry grids:

1. CCE_LASS_1cm_lidar_MontereyCanyon_May2016
   • a portion of the survey area mapped by lidar between May 10 - 12, 2016