ABSTRACT 



DATA LIBRARY 



Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 



The Continental Shelf bordering southeastern Florida between Palm 

 Beach and Miami was surveyed by the U. S. Army Coastal Engineering Research 

 Center to locate and evaluate sand deposits potentially usable for shore 

 protection and restoration projects. Survey data covered that portion of 

 the Continental -Shelf between 15- and 100-foot depths, and consisted of 

 seismic reflection profiles and sediment cores of the sea floor and shallow 

 subbottom strata. 



■South of Boca Raton to Miami, much of the shelf is essentially rocky 

 with a thin sediment veneer. Relatively thick deposits of sediment have 

 accumulated locally in troughs on the shelf surface formed between low 

 reef -like ridges lying parallel to shore. Shelf sediments south of Boca 

 Raton consist almost entirely of sand-size calcareous skeletal fragments. 



North of Boca Raton to Palm Beach, most of the shelf is overlain by 

 a thick blanket deposit of homogeneous fine-to-medium, gray sand about 

 half of which consists of quartz particles and the remainder of calcareous 

 skeletal fragments. 



A total volume of 201 million cubic yards of sand-size sediment 

 occurs on the shelf south of Boca Raton. Although generally suitable for 

 beach fill in terms of size, degradation of size by abrasion and fragmenta- 

 tion of the delicate particles may occur in the shore environment. More 

 than 380 million cubic yards of sand-size sediment lies on the shelf north 

 of Boca Raton. However, because of its fine size, this sand is not con- 

 sidered ideally suited for use on local beaches. 



In terms of potential as beach sand, sand size sediment from the shelf 

 bordering southeastern Florida is of marginal quality. 



FOREWORD 



This report is the first of a series which will describe CERC's Sand 

 Inventory Program. 



David B. Duane, Chief of the Geology Branch and Edward P. Meisburger, 

 a CERC geologist, prepared the report under the general supervision of 

 George M. Watts, Chief of the Engineering Development Division. The field 

 work was done by Alpine Geophysical Associates under contract CDA-08-123- 

 CIVENG-65-57) to the Jacksonville District, Corps of Engineers. 



Cores taken during the sand exploration are stored at the Smithsonian 

 Oceanographic Sorting Center (SOSC) . Microfilms of the seismic profiles. 



0030110001079 



