Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

High-resolution (0.5m) backscatter from the Stamp Sands of Lake Superior collected using a Norbit iWBMSh multibeam echosounder during 2021 (GeoTIFF, UTM Zone 16N, NAD 83, NAVD 88)

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The erosion and active transport of legacy mine tailings (called “stamp sands”) are impacting native fish species and aquatic habitats on a shallow water rocky reef complex along the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan called Buffalo Reef. Stamp sands are spreading from an old mill site at the Town of Gay and settling on the reef. Multiple surveys have documented the underwater migration of toxic, metal-rich stamp sands and progressive burial of areas of hard/complex lakefloor, such as cobble fields. The finer-grained, muddy fraction of the mine tailings has been winnowed by waves and currents and transported to unknown locations in deeper waters offshore. High-resolution geophysical mapping of the bay in 2018 revealed a complex pattern of sandy bedforms on the lakefloor and a general trend of decreasing sediment thickness in areas more distal from the original source, suggesting a flux of sandy sediment from NE to SW across the bay. The present study used multi-beam echosounders deployed in August 2021 to update the high-resolution bathymetry and acoustic backscatter maps with the intent to document sand migration, and to describe habitat geomorphology and substrate variation.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/17988081859c3f5fe55ef9e956a0084f
Identifier USGS:634ef560d34e47431c155447
Data Last Modified 20221114
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 9c21d334-58ac-442c-9691-bd675bd94396
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -88.24135,47.15843,-88.17077,47.21226
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 1106e25e9bdcc6dc5c84b35b3b5ea05d7b6471de5f80e06070d6e65ec88c8b40
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -88.24135, 47.15843, -88.24135, 47.21226, -88.17077, 47.21226, -88.17077, 47.15843, -88.24135, 47.15843}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.