Abstract:
ChevronTexaco Corp. donated to the American Geological Institute (AGI) of thousands of miles of historic 2D and 3D seismic data covering offshore California and portions of the West Coast of the U.S. In conjunction, AGI has partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to place the data in a newly created repository called the "National Archive of Marine Seismic Surveys" (NAMSS) enabling ... academic, government and industrial researchers, marine geologists and environmental engineers throughout the world to have easy access to the data through a website created by the USGS office. (http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/NAMSS/).
Beginning in the early 1960's ChevronTexaco acquired seismic data to image and evaluate the geologic potential of the west coast U.S. continental shelf for oil and gas.
"Over the decades, the magnetic tapes containing the seismic data have been stored in special warehouses but they are rapidly approaching the point where they will no longer be viable. The data needs to be transferred to a new digital recording medium to preserve this unique, irreplaceable asset, otherwise it will be permanently lost," said Dr. Donald Paul, ChevronTexaco vice president and chief technology officer.
"The data is a valuable resource for understanding the offshore structural geology, marine sedimentation and even the mapping of the complex fault systems associated with earthquakes, particularly in Southern California," said Stephen Testa, president, American Geological Institute.
This data transfer came about through the cooperative efforts of ChevronTexaco, the USGS, and AGI. Bill Kempner, a geophysicist for ChevronTexaco in Bakersfield, California teamed up with Jon Childs, a geophysicist at the USGS, Menlo Park, California, and Christopher Keane, Director of Technology and Communications at the American Geological Institute to come up with a plan to preserve the data and move it into the public domain for future educational and scientific use.
"The earth science research community is already showing a high level of interest in gaining access to these offshore images. The plan is to begin the initial transfer of more than 30,000 tapes immediately. The expectation is that this data resource will enable years of geological and geophysical research to expand our knowledge of the continental shelf area," said Dr. Charles Groat, director, U.S. Geological Survey.
Name:
CHRISTOPHER
M.
KEANE
Phone:
(703) 379-2480
Fax:
(703) 379-7563
Email:
keane at agiweb.org
Contact Address:
American Geological Institute
4220 King Street City:
Alexandria
Province or State:
VA
Postal Code:
22302-1502
Country:
USA
Name:
JONATHAN
R.
CHILDS
Phone:
(415) 329-5195
Fax:
(415) 329-5197
Email:
jchilds at usgs.gov
Contact Address:
U.S. Geological Survey
M/S 999
345 Middlefield Rd. City:
Menlo Park
Province or State:
CA
Postal Code:
94025
Country:
USA
Name:
CHEVRONTEXACO
Phone:
+1-925-842-1000
Email:
comment at chevrontexaco.com
Contact Address:
ChevronTexaco Headquarters
6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd. City:
San Ramon
Province or State:
CA
Postal Code:
94583
Country:
USA
Personnel
TYLER
B.
STEVENS Role:
SERF AUTHOR
Phone:
(301) 614-6898
Fax:
301-614-5268
Email:
Tyler.B.Stevens at nasa.gov
Contact Address:
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Global Change Master Directory City:
Greenbelt
Province or State:
MD
Postal Code:
20771
Country:
USA
JONATHAN
R.
CHILDS Role:
TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone:
(415) 329-5195
Fax:
(415) 329-5197
Email:
jchilds at usgs.gov
Contact Address:
U.S. Geological Survey
M/S 999
345 Middlefield Rd. City:
Menlo Park
Province or State:
CA
Postal Code:
94025
Country:
USA
PATRICK
E.
HART Role:
TECHNICAL CONTACT
Phone:
650-329-5160
Fax:
650-329-5190
Email:
hart at usgs.gov
Contact Address:
345 Middlefield Road
USGS City:
Menlo Park
Province or State:
CA
Postal Code:
94025
Country:
USA
Publications/References
Wessel, P. and W.H.F. Smith, 1998, New, improved version of the Generic Mapping Tools released, EOS. Trans. AGU, 79, 579; Smith, W.H.F. and P. Wessel, 1990, Gridding with continuous curvature splines in tension, Geophysics, 55, 293-305
Smith and Sandwell (1997, Global sea floor topography from satellite altimetry and ship depth soundings, Science, 277, 1956-1962).
Creation and Review Dates
SERF Creation Date:
2005-03-07
SERF Last Revision Date:
2011-06-01