The project is aimed at understanding the process of mass- wasting by photographing and sampling specific substrates and outcrops, and to quantitatively describe and classify subsea terrains using acoustic remote sensing on the continental slope off the New Jersey coast. Side-scan sonar imagery of the area already exists, and under this project sampling along steep- sided outcrops will be a accomplished by using the submersible ALVIN. complemented by coring in other places, and seabed photography from a towed sled, which will ground-truth the existing imagery data. The data will help answer important unknowns, such as, whether the erosion of slope is caused by external forces such as sea level and climate or by failure of the slope, and information about the rate of erosion. It will also answer the questions about the reliability of digitally processed imagery of the seafloor in predicting the substrate type and internal properties of the seabed.
