From Above and Below: Combining High-Resolution Bathymetry and Photogrammetry to Document Operation Crossroads in New Detail

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Mapping Crossroads: Archaeological and High Resolution Documentation of Nuclear Test Submerged Cultural Resources at Bikini Atoll" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1946, Operations Crossroads subjected a fleet of warships moored in Bikini Atoll to aerial and subaqueous atomic blasts to determine the effect of atomic weapons in naval settings. A new expedition was conducted in June 2019 to examine effects previously undocumented due to technological limitations at the time of Operation Crossroads   Equipped with a high-frequency phase-measuring echo-sounder with satellite corrected GPS positioning and internal navigation, the underwater landscape of Operation Crossroads was mapped in high-resolution for the first time. Using this detailed sonar data to guide technical diver operations, new video and photogrammetric documentation was collected on 7 of the Crossroads shipwrecks. Insight from diver imagery in turn clarified or confirmed interpretations from sonar data, including severe deformation of wrecks near the Able and Baker test blasts. New context provided by the combined high-resolution mapping and diver investigations illustrates the benefit of this combined methodology in underwater site documentation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Mapping Crossroads: Archaeological and High Resolution Documentation of Nuclear Test Submerged Cultural Resources at Bikini Atoll   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 799