A Note on Gas Hydrate in the Northern Sector of the South China Sea

Abstract

In 1998, the Naval Research Laboratory compiled a digital bathymetric database for use in environmental analyses of the seafloor morphology, physiography, and surficial sediments in the northern sector of the South China Sea (McDonnell, et al., 1998). Both detailed bathymetric surveys and random-track bathymetric sounding data were used. Most of this data was obtained from the United States National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) and the United States National Imaging and Mapping Agency (NIMA), as well as other data not held by these agencies. Compilation created a new set of digital bathymetric contours (Fig. 1).