NOAA Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Google Earth Map
Feb 25th, 2008 by virgil
The NOAA Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Program has been actively surveying coastal areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana since 2006 to locate hurricane debris that might pose a hazard to navigation. During this process, they have amassed an impressive list of verified bottom structure, complete with depth, length, width, and height information. As a service to our EarthNC subscribers, we’ve created a Google Earth version of their latest data release (September 2007). With EarthNC and Google Earth, you can easily determine the coordinates of each point and pull up size information. While the accuracy of this dataset is likely quite good relative to other sources, it is of course, Not For Navigation.
Coverage Extent and Format
Click on either the Google Earth screen shot above or NOAA Survey Area map below to see the current coverage area for the Marine Surveys. For the EarthNC rendition, we’ve colored the border of each debris point to indicate charted depth. Red is less than 1
0′, Orange, 10′-20′, and Green greater than 20′. The size of the icon is a relative indication of the total estimated area of the debris. To obtain the latitude/longitude of a debris location, right click and select ‘Properties’.
Try it Out!
To use the EarthNC NOAA Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Map you need to have installed Google Earth 4.2 or higher. If you don’t have Google Earth, get it HERE free.
View the Full Map with EarthNC Online
Our EarthNC Online Chart and Map Service includes the full version of the Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Map. After loading the core EarthNC Online in Google Earth, scroll down in the Google Earth ‘Places’ menu and find the entry for ‘NOAA Gulf Coast Marine Debris Map’ in the Fishing and Dive Sites Folder. Click on the checkbox to the left of the NOAA layer and the map will load.
EarthNC Online offers limited versions of NOAA and Army Corps Nautical Charts for Google Earth along with a large and growing library of nautical weather, point of interest, and other mapping layers for use by boaters and water enthusiasts. Registration for EarthNC Online is free and easy.
Try Our Sample Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Map
Click HERE to load a sample of the EarthNC Marine Debris map. The sample covers a single ‘zone’ from the full dataset.
If you’re looking for full navigation charts for the Gulf Coast compatible with our Marine Debris Map, consider EarthNC Plus Vector Charts and EarthNC Raster Charts for Google Earth.
