Great Lakes Bathymetry Contours Coordinate system: 4326 - "WGS 84" Abstract: The Great Lakes Bathymetry Contours data set 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 to the public. This bathymetry of the Great Lakes including Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Saint Clair, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan provides a detailed look at the lake floor topography and serves as a GIS base layer for many applications. Please note that the compilation of Great Lakes Bathymetry is incomplete, contours for Lake Superior are not provided in this data set, however, it is possible to create contour intervals from the original imagery consisting of elevation properties (Digital Elevation Model - DEM) collected as part of the Great Lakes Bathymetry (NOAA). This project is a cooperative effort between investigators 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). Bathymetric data have been collected from the Great Lakes in support of nautical charting for at least 150 years by the US Army Corp. of Engineers (before 1970), the NOAA National Ocean Service (NOS) (after 1970), and the Canadian Hydrographic Service.

Additional Documentation

• Metadata Information

  Language: eng; CAN

  Last Update: 2014-07-02

  Other Maintenance Requirements:

  Metadata was created using metadata provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). doi:10.7289/V5KS6PHK

  Metadata Contact:

  Scholars Portal, Ontario Council of University Libraries Toronto Ontario, Canada

  Contact Instructions:

  gis@scholarsportal.info

  Metadata Standard:

  North American Profile of ISO 19115 Geographic Information Metadata

• Citation Information

  
  
  

  Series

  Name: Great Lakes Bathymetry

  
  

  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Washington District of Columbia, United States

  Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ann Arbor Michigan, United States

  National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Silver Spring Maryland, United States

  Canadian Hydrographic Service, Fisheries and Oceans Canada Ottawa Ontario, Canada

  National Geophysical Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Boulder Colorado, United States

  Themes or Categories of the Resource: inlandWaters

  Keywords:

  SURFACE WATER, LAKES, WATER DEPTH, BATHYMETRY, SEAFLOOR TOPOGRAPHY, DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL, DEM, GREAT LAKES, TOPOGRAPHY, LACUSTRINE, GEOMORPHOLOGY, STRAIGRAPHIC SEQUENCE, GEOLOGY, LAKE ERIE AND LAKE SAINT CLAIR, LAKE HURON, LAKE MICHIGAN, LAKE ONTARIO, LAKE SUPERIOR, Open Data

  LAKES, SURFACE WATER, WATER, Bathymetry, TOPOGRAPHY, GEOMORPHOLOGY, GEOLOGY

  Surface water, Eau de surface, Lakes, Lac, Topography, Topographie, Geomorphology, Géomorphologie, Geology, Géologie

  Place Keywords:

  Continent > North America > Canada > Ontario

  Purpose:

  Scientific Research, Commercial Exploration, Fishing, Policy and Decision-making.

  Dataset Language: eng; CAN

  Status: completed

  Update Frequency: annually

  Spatial Representation Type: vector

  Extent

  West Longitude: -87.992684

  East Longitude: -76.01000

  North Latitude: 46.485308

  South Latitude: 41.380978

  
  

  Supplemental Information:

  Supplemental information regarding spatial reference. Contours are vertically referenced to lake levels.

• Spatial Representation - Vector

  Geometric Objects:

  Object Type: composite

  Object Count: 115747

• Reference System Information

  Reference System Identifier

  Value: 4326

  Code Space: http://www.epsg-registry.org/

• Data Quality Information

  Scope Level: dataset

  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): Bathymetric data have been collected from the Great Lakes in support of nautical charting for at least 150 years by the US 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 accumulated historic soundings had never been used to systematically map the topography of the floors of Lake Erie and Lake Saint Clair. Bathymetric sounding data employed in compiling the one-meter bathymetry (National Geophysical Data Center, 1998) were collected over a 100-year period for purposes of navigation safety and nautical charting by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the NOAA Coast Survey, and the Canadian Hydrographic Service. These bathymetric data, totaling several hundred thousand soundings, are separated four ways in existing archives: by whether they exist in digital form or reside only on paper sheets; and by whether they were collected by the U. S. or Canada. Final assembly of the new bathymetry has resulted from synthesis of bathymetric data from the four sources. Spacing of data control tracklines ranges from 500 to 2500 meters for the open lake and from 125 to 500 meters for nearshore areas.

  
  

  Process step:

  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): In preparation for bathymetric contouring, digital soundings were converted to metric units and computer plotted in color according to depth range. Contours in metric units were generated directly on overlays from paper sheets and then reduced to compilation scale and patched in. Compilation sheets were scanned and vectorized; and the resulting digital bathymetric contour data constitutes the primary product. The data were hand contoured by geomorphologists to capture and portray the maximum information available, resulting in a degree of detail not attainable with machine contouring and the density of available data. Bathymetric contours were prepared by geologists using sounding data contained in the paper archives at the scale of the survey sheets (scales ranging from 1: 100,000 to 1: 10, 000); or from sounding data contained in digital data bases at standard scales of either 1: 100,000 or 1: 50,000. Details concerning the methods of compilation are given in the western Lake Erie paper (Holcombe, et al., 1997). Bathymetric contours have been spatially reconciled with the NOAA Coast Survey nominal scale 1:80,000 digital vector shoreline, which by definition coincides with the Lake Erie low water datum, the zero-depth employed for bathymetric surveys and nautical charting.

• Distribution Information

  Distributor:

  National Geophysical Data Centre, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Boulder Colorado, United States

  http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ngdc.html

• Related Links

  • Great Lakes Bathymetry, National Geophysical Data Centre, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)