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Continuous Seismic Profiling (CSP) surveys in the Des Moines River and Beaver Creek, Des Moines, Iowa, 2018

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2021-12-07T00:00:00Z
In September 2018, approximately 13 miles of continuous seismic profiling (CSP) surveys were collected on the Des Moines River and Beaver Creek in Des Moines, Iowa. The swept frequency (chirp) CSP subbottom profiler was used to characterize the unconsolidated materials above the bedrock. The CSP subbottom profiler is an acoustic sound source that travels through the water column and reflects off the bottom and sub-bottom layers and is received at the transducer. Applying a water column velocity, the two-way travel time can be converted to distance. CSP methods provide the depth to water bottom, and when sufficient signal penetration is achieved, CSP can be used to delineate the depth of subbottom layers and topography of the bedrock surface. Data were collected concurrently with CRP methods. Both methods used the same .gps files for georeferencing. Starting and ending coordinates for each line are specified in the file "readme_CSP.txt". This data release contains the raw instrument files for each survey line converted to open-source files (.SGY), a comma separated values notes file (CSP_Archive_Notes_DesMoinesIA.csv), and a text file (readme_CSP.txt) file that explains data files and contains the processing references. Field notes taken at the time of data collection are not included in this data release but are available upon request.

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