Bathymetric Contours for South Florida and the Caribbean

Depth contours for the South Florida, Cuba, and Bahamas region, digitized from a 1992 nautical chart. The dataset includes lines for 3, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 1000 fathom depths, plus the Bahamas shoreline. Data was created by the Florida Marine Research Institute and provided by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

Use Cases

• Generate small-scale bathymetric maps using the 3, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 1000 fathom contour lines.
• Analyze seafloor slope and shelf extent by comparing the spatial distribution of different depth contours.
• Create a base layer for marine habitat modeling by integrating the Bahamas shoreline with depth data.
• Compare historical 1992 seafloor depths with modern sonar surveys to assess sedimentation or erosion.

Strengths

• Contains six specific depth contours (3, 10, 20, 50, 100, 1000 fathoms) for analysis.
• Digitized from a clean, wrinkle-free paper chart at a scale of 1:1,200,000.
• Includes the Bahamas shoreline as an additional geographic feature.

Limitations

• Data is from a single snapshot in 1992 and does not reflect current seafloor conditions.
• Contour accuracy is limited by the 1:1,200,000 scale of the source paper chart.
• No metadata on digitization precision or potential errors from the manual process.

Provenance

Source

Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI), provided by NOAA_NCEI.

Collection Method

Digitized manually from a clean paper version of NOS Chart 11013, 39th Edition.

Time Range

1992-04-25 (chart edition date).

Freshness

1992-04-25

Geography

South Florida, Cuba, and the Bahamas.