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U.S. Department of Commerce
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NOAA/NESDIS)

Bathymetry of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair CD-ROM
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Geomorphology Grids Vector data files Images

INTRODUCTION

New bathymetry of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair has been compiled as a component of a NOAA project to rescue Great Lakes lake floor geological and geophysical data and make it more accessible. This project is a cooperative effort between scientists at the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center's Marine Geology and Geophysics Division (NGDC/MGG), the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) and the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS).

A high quality bathymetric map is of great value for geological and limnological studies. Modeling of lake circulation and sediment transport, and predicting the effects of climate change and toxic waste remediation on lake physiography are only a few examples of tasks that can be done better and more accurately with the availability of a high quality base map. Several lake floor feature names mentioned in the text and present on the images have recently been approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

Bathymetric data has been collected from the Great Lakes in support of nautical charting for at least 150 years by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (before 1970), the NOAA National Ocean Service (NOS) (after 1970), and the Canadian Hydrographic Service. Until now, the entire array of historic soundings had never been used to systematically map the topography of the floors of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair. The digital sounding data for U.S. waters used in this compilation are from the National Ocean Service Hydrographic Data Base (NOSHDB).

This data base is maintained by NGDC in conjunction with NOS and comprises the majority of NGDC's area survey holdings providing extensive survey coverage of the coastal waters and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the United States and its territories.

Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair Bathymetry Products and Services Available

Custom color images are available for all or any portion of the lakes at various scales and projections. In addition, a 26"x50" color poster displaying the bathymetry of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair at a scale of 1:350,000, a 22"x27" color poster displaying the bathymetry of western Lake Erie at a scale of 1:200,000, and a 11"x17" color mini-poster displaying the bathymetry of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair, as well as copies of this CD-ROM, can be ordered using Data Announcement 98-MGG-01.

For more information contact:

Lisa A. Taylor
National Geophysical Data Center
Marine Geology & Geophysics Division
E/GC3 325 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80303
phone: 303-497-6767
fax: 303-497-6513
email: Lisa.A.Taylor@noaa.gov
WWW: Great Lakes Data Rescue Page
URL: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/greatlakes/greatlakes.html

Introduction | Geomorphology | Grids | Vector data files | Images



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