Sonar Seafloor Exploration within the Central South Atlantic Bight

As part of the College of Charleston's Transect Program, research cruises conducted aboard the RV Savannah of the Skidaway Institution of Oceanography and the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster have explored and sampled several localities within the central portion of the South Atlantic Bight, the continental shelf region between Florida and Cape Hatteras, NC. Klein sidescan and Kongsberg multibeam sonar arrays collected seafloor images and bathymetric data that were processed by CofC undergraduate geology researchers using Caris HIPS/SIPS software. Several of the data sets have been ground-truthed using sediment grabs, footage from ROV cameras and SCUBA videography. Two of the prominent seafloor features discovered are (1) an outcropping hard-ground shelf-edge structure approximately 650 by 150 m, with 10 m relief. It is oriented parallel to shore in water depths of 60 m. Possible geological and biological influences on the structure's origin and morphology are being explored; and (2) a meandering river channel located on the mid-shelf, where water depth is approximately 22 m. Rock and sediment samples as well as video documentation of this feature reveal a channel with 1.5 m of relief, cut into the hard-ground, and includes coarse sands and abundant river pebbles. Additional shelf hard-ground features will be presented.