The Use of Marine Magnetics to Study Submerged Archaeological Deposits in Shallow Water

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Liquid Landscapes: Recent Developments in Submerged Landscape Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Marine geophysics has been increasingly used to identify and study submerged landscapes and the archaeology thereof. Techniques such as side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiling have been used to locate submerged archaeological deposits. Marine magnetics offer another method that can be used in the study of submerged landscapes. Marine magnetics have been used successfully to identify many shipwreck sites. The success of these studies is based on the scale of the target, high magnetic intensity, preferential preservation, and location of submerged historic metallic objects; however, the use of magnetics is not limited to the study of shipwrecks. The utility and success of magnetics in the study of submerged landscapes is increasing based on the nature of archaeological deposits, site formation processes involving extreme heat or the displacement of sediment and soils, and the increased sensitivity of equipment used. This poster presents preliminary research into the use of marine magnetics to survey, identify, and differentiate potential archaeological features on submerged landscapes in shallow water (<15 m) based on changes in magnetic values.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Liquid Landscapes: Recent Developments in Submerged Landscape Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36966.0