Seafloor mapping CSI: Utilizing ship based and robotic platforms to map and help uncover the mysteries of the USS San Diego 100 years after a U-boat attack
Abstract
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of US involvement in World War I, a coordinated team comprised of the Naval History and Heritage Command, the University Delaware, Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock and partners conducted a cursory site assessment of the wreck of USS San Diego. The Armored cruiser San Diego, launched in 1899, was the only major warship lost by the U.S. Navy during the Great War. Sunk by German U-boat in July 1918, the war grave came to rest just a few miles south of Long Island, where her story has continued to fascinate the public since that time. With the upcoming centennial commemoration of her loss, the recent project aimed to use remote sensing tools to acoustically and visually document the site, and in doing so definitively answer the persistent questions about the cause of her loss. This investigation utilized a combination of surface mounted multiphase echo sounder, AUV with side-scan and swath bathymetry, and inspection class ROV to provide detailed mapping and measurement of the condition of the wreck to help unlock the mystery of her sinking and to guide site management. Results present the details of the combined historical and geophysical investigation including how the technologies were selected and operated and the merging of datasets from surface and AUV platforms to generate a combined high resolution map of the wreckage.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMOS24B..06T
- Keywords:
-
- 1910 Data assimilation;
- integration and fusion;
- INFORMATICSDE: 3045 Seafloor morphology;
- geology;
- and geophysics;
- MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICSDE: 3094 Instruments and techniques;
- MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICSDE: 3099 General or miscellaneous;
- MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS