LOOP marine and estuarine monitoring program, 1978-95 : volume 3 : physical hydrography.

This is Volume 3, Physical Hydrography, of a six volume set that includes: Volume 1: Executive Summary; Volume 2: Water Chemistry; Volume 3: Physical Hydrography; Volume 4. Zooplankton and Ichthyoplankton; Volume 5: Demersal Nekton; and Volume 6. Sediment Quality. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) facilities in coastal Louisiana provide the United States with the country's only Superport for off-loading deep draft tankers. The complex region of interest is associated with the Mississippi River deltaic plain. The estuarine portion (Barataria Basin) has resulted from the subsidence of abandoned river distributaries and associated marsh; the offshore region is strongly influenced by the discharge plumes from the present data. The hydrographic data sets collected by the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) Environmental Monitoring Program are among the longest continuous records from this region and clearly define the inter-annual and intra-annual hydrographic variability of the area. The most complete of these concern the temperature and salinity variations.