The use of the coastal oceans in the 80's : opportunities for marine geology

Abstract

Events of recent years have clearly indicated that the United States will be making greater use of its coastal and offshore region in the 1980's. Rational use of this area will require the combined talents of scientists, engineers, politicians, environmentalists and others . There will be pressures and needs to use the coastal ocean for nuclear waste disposal, marine mining, disposal of waste materials, and hydrocarbon exploration: these uses will require new answers and technologies for many important marine geological questions. In an effort to identify these questions and determine what is needed to answer them, a group of approximately sixty geologists and marine scientists from academia, industry and the federal government met for a 2-1/2 day workshop at Woods Hole in October 1979. Initially the group looked at six uses of the offshore region: Nuclear Waste Disposal; Sewage, Industrial and Dredge Material Disposal; Offshore Structures; Marine Mining; Hydrocarbon Exploration and Extraction; and Military Related Activities .