Sediment and Structure (ICONS) program. The ICONS program is directed 

 not only toward the mapping of sand deposits suitable for beach res- 

 toration but also the delineation of shelf structural characteristics 

 (Meisburger and Duane, 1969), analysis of shelf history and sediment 

 sources (Duane, et al . , 1972; Pilkey and Field, 1972; Field, 1974), and 

 determination of regional engineering properties of shelf sediments 

 (Williams and Duane, 1972; Field and Duane, 1972). 



An early study by the Corps of Engineers in evaluating techniques 

 for transferring offshore sand to the beach is described by Mauriello 

 (1967). This experiment at Sea Girt, New Jersey, involved dredging of 

 191,000 cubic meters (250,000 cubic yards) of sand by use of the hopper 

 dredge, Geothals , at a location 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) offshore from 

 the beach segment to be restored. The loaded dredge, which had a pump- 

 out capability, docked alongside an achored barge and the sand was pumped 

 ashore through a submerged pipeline. 



At Redondo Beach, California, in 1967-68, the U.S. Army Engineer 

 District, Los Angeles, contracted dredging of more than 1.1 million cubic 

 meters (1.4 million cubic yards) of sand from offshore in 12.2 meters 

 (40 feet) of water and transferring to the beach. The dredging contractor 

 used a 41-centimeter (16 inches) hydraulic dredge with powerful water jets 

 for agitation in lieu of a normal cutterhead on the ladder. These opera- 

 tions, as well as others conducted in open-ocean inlet mouths, in the 

 Long Island Sound, and along the gulf coast, have demonstrated the 

 feasibility of using offshore marine and lake deposits for beach restora- 

 tion and periodic nourishment operations. 



2. Scope . 



This study examines the surface and shallow subsurface sediments of 

 the Atlantic Inner Continental Shelf off Delaware, Maryland, and northern 

 Virginia (Fig. 1). Bounds of the study are from the mouth of Delaware 

 Bay (38°54' N.) south to Chincoteague, Virginia (37°55' N.), and from the 

 coastline out to the 25-meter (80 feet) depth contour or up to 36 kilo- 

 meters (20 nautical miles) seaward of the beach. The prime area of 

 concentration is the upper 30 meters (100 feet) of the Maryland sea floor 

 between the 6- and 21-meter (20 and 70 feet) depth contours. 



Field data collected consist of 880 kilometers (475 nautical miles) 

 of high-resolution continuous seismic reflection (CSR) profiling, 180 

 kilometers (97 nautical miles) of fathometer profiling, 35 kilometers 

 (19 nautical miles) of side-scan sonography, and 71 vibratory cores, 3 

 to 9 meters (10 to 30 feet) long and 6.4 centimeters (2.5 inches) in 

 diameter. The cores and 700 kilometers (378 nautical miles) of CSR pro- 

 filing were obtained the summer of 1970 (Figs. 2 and 3); the other data, 

 including additional CSR profiling using improved equipment, were col- 

 lected the spring of 1974 (Fig. 4). Many tracklines in the 1974 survey 

 were rerun along lines previously surveyed to gather additional or higher 

 quality data in areas where data quality was marginal and also to provide 

 a basis for interpretation and correlation of the two data sets. 



