Under San Francisco Bay—A New View of the Floor of West-Central San Francisco Bay
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Under San Francisco Bay—A New View of the Floor of West-Central San Francisco Bay Suisun This poster features a new Bay 2. Dredged Sediment: Where to put it? San Pablo view of the floor of west- Bay Oblique view of three rock Tiburon central San Francisco Bay Sand and mud must be dredged from parts of San Francisco Bay and surrounding harbors to keep channels and berths deep enough for pinnacles on the floor of San Peninsula Angel Island —the deep part of the bay, ships and other vessels. This dredging has gone on since the first shipping channel was created in the 1850’s. Some areas are dredged Francisco Bay that could Harding Shag Rock pose a threat to deep-draft where ocean-going vessels every few years, others every year, depending on how fast sediment builds up. Rock CALIFO Area Dredging keeps harbors and waterways open but also creates the problem of where to put the dredged sediment, which not only takes vessels (see text below). of poster San traverse the shipping lanes Heights are exaggerated in Francisco up space but commonly contains pollutants such as droplets of oil and paint chips from ships’ hulls. Strict standards set by the Arch Rock San Francisco and strong tidal currents this image, so that summits RNIA Bay Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are used to determine which sediment gets dumped where. The most contaminated sediment is Pacific Ocean appear higher and slopes sculpt the bay floor. The data dumped on land. Cleaner sediment is dumped at sites in the open ocean and in the bay. used to create it provide the steeper than they really are. 0 10 20 Kilometers One disposal site in San Francisco Bay—currently in limited use—is just south of Alcatraz Island. Before dumping began there in This vertical exaggeration 0 10 20 Miles first look at such a large area 1894, the site was a hole on the bay floor 50 meters (165 feet) deep. By the mid-1980’s, the dumped sediment (more than 6 million cubic helps viewers see subtle var- of the bay floor in such detail. meters, or 8 million cubic yards) had formed a mound that rose to within 10 meters (33 feet) of sea level and began to pose a threat to iations in the topography of deep-draft vessels (see images below). The mound has also raised questions that apply to any sediment dumped in the bay: the bay floor. A reference • Will the sediment be eroded? mesh has been added to pro- This new view of the floor of San Francisco Bay was made from data gathered by the U.S. • Will currents carry the sediment to other parts of the bay? vide a scale for measuring Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) • Will pollutants in the sediment harm bay ecosystems? distance. using a state-of-the-art mapping system (see “High-Resolution Multibeam Mapping,” below). The data used to create this poster will help identify sites where dredged sediment will stay put and not drift back into channels or Outline of rocks shallower The new data from the floor of San Francisco Bay are helping to answer challenging sensitive bay ecosystems. than 17 meters (55 feet) questions, such as: Reference mesh of Some rocks on San Francisco Bay floor 50-yd (46 meter) squares 1. How much sediment is on the bay floor, and how do water that pose hazards to navigation Vertical exaggeration: 10x currents move the sediment? Alcatraz 1894 Alcatraz 1997 2. Where can sediment dredged from harbors and shipping Island Island channels be safely disposed of? 3. How much rock must be trimmed from pinnacles on the 3. Rock Pinnacles: How much to remove for safer shipping? bay floor to ensure that ships do not run aground on them? West-central San Francisco Bay is a geographic bottleneck that ships must navigate on their way This poster describes the ways in which the USGS has started answering these questions. to ports, harbors, and waterways in the bay area (see map below). This part of the bay has several N N rock pinnacles that rise from the bay floor to within 11 meters (36 feet) of the water surface. Of the Outline of Alcatraz disposal site Outline of Alcatraz thousands of ocean-going vessels that travel yearly through the west-central bay, more than 200 have Reference mesh of disposal site drafts in excess of 12 meters (39 feet). When loaded, the bottoms of these deep-draft vessels are 100-yard (91meter) Reference mesh of squares 100-yard (91meter) deeper than the tops of the rock pinnacles. 1. Sediment on the Floor of San Francisco Bay: squares Vertical exaggeration: Taking Harding Rock as an example (see image above), USGS scientists estimate that Reconstruction of San Francisco Bay Underwater: 10x San Francisco Bay Vertical exaggeration: approximately 38,000 cubic meters (50,000 cubic yards) of rock would have to be removed to lower Island above sea level Where is it and how does it move? floor of 1894. Maximum depth is floor near Alcatraz Underwater: 10x (brown): 2x Island above sea level the pinnacle to a depth of 17 meters (55 feet). Shag Rock and Arch Rock pose similar hazards. 50 meters (165 feet). disposal site. (brown): 2x Currently under study is a plan to lower rock pinnacles in the bay in order to promote safe ship travel Understanding sediment on the floor of San Francisco Bay—how much is present and where and prevent oil spills that might occur if tankers or other vessels hit the rocks. and how fast it is moved by currents—is central to understanding virtually every other issue Oblique views of the floor of San Francisco Bay south of Alcatraz Island. On the left is a view of the bay floor in 1894, reconstructed from sparse affecting the bay. USGS scientists have combined new water-depth data from the west-central bay historical data. On the right is a view of the bay floor in 1997, constructed from the new USGS data. Dredged sediment dumped since 1894 has turned a depression in the bay floor into a mound that could pose a threat to deep-draft vessels. Heights are exaggerated in these images, so that with data used to measure depth to bedrock in the bay during the 1960’s. The result is the summits appear higher and slopes steeper than they really are. This vertical exaggeration helps viewers see subtle variations in the topography sediment-thickness map shown below. Most maps of the bay floor are bathymetric maps—they of the bay floor. A reference mesh has been added to provide a scale for measuring distance. show the depth from the water surface to the bay floor. This sediment-thickness map shows the depth from the bay floor to bedrock, also called “basement.” The map shows that more than 90 0.5 0 0.5 Kilometer meters (295 feet) of sediment underlies some parts of the bay floor. In other areas, sediment is 0.50 0.5 Mile absent and bedrock is exposed. Tiburon Peninsula Tiburon Sediment Thickness Based on Sediment Thickness Area 1 100 meters Peninsula 1967-1968 Acoustic Profiling and 90 Three-Dimensional Image of 80 70 1997 USGS Bathymetry 60 50 Tiburon Peninsula 30 40 Angel 0 20 30 1 the Floor of West-Central 0 20 0 0 4 40 1 20 Island 3 10 0 5 600 60 0 7 50 Rocks near Alcatraz San Francisco Bay Sausalito Island shallower 40 20 0 than 15 meters 2 3 Angel 0 3 40 Sausalito 0 Island 0 60 5 10 5 0 20 0 4 30 30 Harding Rock 0 3 Shag 40 NE 30 5 70 Rock 0 1 0 0 20 4 7 (2-way) Arch 0 6 0 0 Deep-water Traffic 3 Precautionary 6 Rock 0 c 80 450 0 0 Area 40 3 3 Westbound Traffi 0 5060 30 40 20 20 0 50 6 1 30 0 50 40 Alcatraz Island 4 Harding Rock 10 3 0 0 0 7 1 0 Shag Rock 60 50 Alcatraz 30 50 Eastbound Traffic 40 0 Dump Site 2 Blossom 20 30 Alcatra 3 Arch 0 0 0 Rock 3 80 20 6 10 0 0 9 5 0 Rock 10 4 30 0 7 0 3 2 0 Alcatraz z Golden 1 60 Island30 20 0 Gate 20 30 10 0 5 1 40 0 San Francisco 50 60 0 4 Blossom 1 40 0 0 5 0 60 0 6 Rock 4 0 0 4 0 5 40 3 7 View of the floor of west-central San Francisco Bay with shipping lanes (approximate) 0 0 0 4 3 3 5 0 0 40 superimposed. Shipping lanes were approximated from U.S. National Oceanic and Fort SW Atmospheric Administration National Ocean Survey Chart 18649, “San Francisco Golden Point Gate 0.5 0 0.5 Kilometer Entrance,” 48th edition, 1981. Bridge San Francisco 0.5 0 0.5 Mile SW NE High-resolution seafloor maps support studies like those described here and (Fort Harding (Angel Point) Rock Island) many others, including studies of offshore earthquake faults, seafloor habitats of Sea Level 0 fish and shell fish, and saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers. Making such maps 50 SEDIMENT BASEMENT V.E. = 5x is part of the work of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Coastal and Marine Geology Depth (m) 100 01000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 Program, which conducts scientific research along United States coastlines and in Distance (m) adjoining ocean waters.