Digital images of the entire deep-water area of the seafloor within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the United States have been systematically collected since 1984. They have been acquired by the long-range sidescan sonar instrument GLORIA. This spectacular dataset has provided a new insight into the structural evolution of the seafloor and the sedimentary processes that have modified it.

Geology of the United States' Seafloor presents new, definitive studies of the seafloor adjacent to the United States - the West Coast, East Coast, Alaskan margin, Gulf of Mexico, and Carribean - from GLORIA imagery, complementary seismic profiling, and magnetic surveys. Detailed geologic interpretation of the images has not been presented before, nor has any study included so comprehensive an area. Much new knowledge has been garnered from these GLORIA studies, and new concepts have emerged.

For example, the development of submarine fans, the formation of submarine canyons, sediment failure along continental slopes, and the tectonics of plate margins are now all more clearly understood. This book presents this information and also includes chapters on the GLORIA system and on the processing of the sidescan sonar images.