-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FW: SILS Bulletin 06-17 Hudson Canyon Undersea Map
Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 07:33:53 -0400
From: Zellmer, Linda R <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>, "Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum"
<[log in to unmask]>




SILS Information Bulletin

Number: 06-17 Sea Floor Topography and Backscatter Intensity of the Hudson
Canyon Region offshore of New York and New Jersey
Date: September 7, 2006

Stock # Open File Report 2004-1441 (map on demand product)
Price: $20.00 per sheet, plus $5.00 handling
Free download from: http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/ofr/ofr20041441


The US Geological Survey worked with a team from Rutgers University,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, and Stony Brook
University in New York to produce maps of an undersea region the size of
Connecticut. Using high-tech tools, the four-year study has produced
maps that scientists say will allow them to study many things, including
whether methane gas trapped in frozen sediment below the sea floor is
escaping and exacerbating global warming. Peter A. Rona, a Rutgers
University professor led the team that produced the maps.

Although just 100 miles off the New Jersey-New York coast, the features
of the Hudson Canyon are largely hidden beneath hundreds of feet of
water. Created by the Hudson River centuries ago, parts of the massive,
undersea region rival the Grand Canyon in scale. Now, for the first
time, scientists have a vivid picture of what the mysterious region
looks like.

The area's centerpiece is the giant underwater chasm called the Hudson
Canyon. According to Professor Rona this is the largest submarine canyon
off the East Coast of the United States, and one of the largest
submarine canyons in the world.

 From its shallow beginning at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York
Harbor, the Hudson Shelf Valley becomes the Hudson Canyon, which extends
about 450 miles from shore. In places its walls rise three-quarters of a
mile from the canyon floor. That makes it comparable to the Grand
Canyon, whose rims are over a mile above the Colorado River, which winds
through the gorge for more than 270 miles.

This 2-sheet map measuring 42”x62” and 42”x54” is available from USGS
Science Information and
Library Services (SILS). To place an order call the SILS offices at
1-888-ASK-USGS, or visit the USGS Store at: http://store.usgs.gov .


Sheryle Girk-Jackson 303 202 4176, FAX 303 202 4633, email:
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Sheryle J. Girk-Jackson
Technical Information Specialist/Business Acquisitions
USGS/ESIC