River area, S.C., Portland, Maine, and Cape Cod Bay, Mass., will be 

 initiated. 



Other elements in NOAA's nautical charting program include technical 

 assistance to other organizations and governments, a coop>erative charting 

 program with the USCG Auxiliary and the U.S. Power Squadrons to obtain 

 volunteer citizen aid in maintaining up-to-date charts, contributions to Navy 

 and Coast Guard Notice to Maritiers programs, inputs to Corps of En- 

 gineers harbor-approach programs, and liaison with the Canadian Hydro- 

 graphic Office and the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO). 

 NOAA and the Navy are members of the IHO and participate in establish- 

 ing international hydrographic standards. 



Navy charting efforts are almost totally directed to open oceans and 

 operational needs and, in cooperation with the hydrographic offices of host 

 nations, foreign coasts. However, some special efforts in 1971 deserve mention 

 here. Navy accepted delivery of two large new coastal hydrographic survey 

 ships, USNS Chauvenet and USNS Harkness. Ship trials and tests of survey 

 systems were conducted in areas of interest to NOAA and produced more 

 than 16,000 miles of soundings oflF the Virginia and North Carolina coasts. 

 In addition, the Navy survey effort includes a development program which, 

 in 1971, demonstrated successful sounding operations at 25 knots by a 36-foot 

 launch, successfully flight-tested a helicopter pod containing a television- 

 sight cartographic camera system, and fabricated a prototype mooring for its 

 offshore electronic navigation aid station. 



Geophysical Mapping 



The Departments of Commerce, the Interior, and Defense are the major 

 contributors to the Federal geophysical mapping program. NOAA provides 

 reconnaissance bathymetric and geophysical maps of the Continental Shelf 

 and Slope of the United States. In addition, its Scientific Exploration and 

 Mapping Program (SEAMAP) provides geophysical mapping in the deep 

 ocean areas. The USGS conducts detailed geologic mapping and geophysical 

 analysis of the geologic structure of the continental margins. These com- 

 plementary NOAA and USGS continental-margin programs provide data 

 for use in potential mineral resource investigations and appraisals and base- 

 line information for coastal zone management. The Navy defense-oriented 

 deep-ocean geophysical surveys also furnish data useful in these programs. 



NOAA's marine geophysical mapping program provides a comprehensive 

 description of the general geophysical properties of the ocean bottom and 

 substructures as well as producing data needed for a better understanding 

 of ocean properties and processes. The measurements include bathymetry, 

 gravity, magnetism, seismic profiles, heat flow, sediment cores, and physical 

 oceanographic parameters. 



Last year, the newly commissioned NOAA Ship Researcher performed 

 geophysical research in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico in sup- 

 port of CICAR (Cooperative Investigation of the Caribbean and Adjacent 

 Regions) . The Surveyor accomplished geophysical studies in the south- 

 central Pacific and off the Washington-Oregon coasts as part of SEAMAP, 

 sponsored in part by NSF under the IDOE program (see chapter VI). 



57 



