Historic Shipwrecks and Magnetic Anomalies of the Northern Gulf of Mexico: Reevaluation of Archaeological Resource Management Zone 1. Volume 1. Executive Summary

摘要

Numerous unidentified magnetic anomalies and side-scan sonar contacts that could represent historic shipwrecks in the Gulf of Mexico have been identified as a result of Minerals Management Service (MMS) remote-sensing surveys. The objectives of the surveys were divided into two tasks. Task 1 provides a collection, evaluation, and synthesis of archaeological, environmental, and geographic data to refine and redefine the Cultural Resource Management Zone 1 (CRMZ1), which is an area considered to have a high probability for the occurrence of historic shipwrecks. Task II was designed to develop an interpretive framework to identify the nature of magnetic anomalies and side-scan sonar contacts within the CRMZ1. Field studies were conducted to determine the relationship between survey linespacings and the percentage of objects detected on the seafloor. The data was analyzed to investigate whether remote-sensing data could discriminate between a cultural resource and recent debris.