2002 Explorations
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Summary of results from 2001 Shipwreck Mapping
Survey
Description of Operations
Partners
Biographies
Expedition Log
Shipwreck
Mapping Results from 2001
 In June 2001, the Institute for Exploration (IFE) and the Thunder Bay National
Marine Sanctuary and Underwater Preserve used sidescan sonar
technology to survey the deepwater shipwrecks of the Sanctuary.
The expedition team used IFE's new sidescan sonar towfish, called ECHO,
which uses sound to image objects on the lakebottom. Working
24 hours a day for 14 days, the expedition team covered 342 square
miles of Lake Huron lakebottom. Within this area, the team located
approximately 70 "targets," anomalies in the sonar
data that could be intact shipwrecks, parts of shipwrecks, rock
outcroppings, boulders, or unidentified obstructions. Of these
targets, 11 are known shipwrecks and three are shipwrecks whose
identities are not known to the expedition team.
In addition to mapping
shipwrecks, the expedition team located geologic features known
as "karsts." Karsts are limestone formations that have
undergone dissolution during lower lake levels, producing a terrain
with dozens of sinkholes. |
