Monumental map reveals Champlain floor

Author: Mallika Rao

On July 7, 2005, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy and Middlebury College President Ronald D. Liebowitz joined Middlebury College researchers at the John McCardell Jr. Bicentennial Hall as they unveiled the result of a decade's worth of research - a new eight-foot bathymetric map reproducing the world's most comprehensive understanding of Lake Champlain's underwater terrain. The presentation of the map was followed by a discussion of how to share this extensive body of information with the public.

Initiated in 1996, the "Whole Lake Survey" undertaken by Middlebury College scientists and researchers and the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) responded both to the Zebra Mussel invasion as well as to interest in then-undiscovered historic shipwrecks hiding on the lake's floor. At the project's beginning, over 90 percent of Lake Champlain remained unexamined. Now, more than 95 percent of the lake bottom exists in image form, collected with the help of cutting-edge marine survey technology. Additionally, over 70 new shipwrecks were discovered and documented.

Liebowitz applauded the work of Tom Manley, visiting assistant professor of Geology, and Pat Manley, associate professor of Geology, in the successful completion of this project. He cited their work with students as emblematic of the kind of collaborations hoped for at Middlebury. Among the principal student participants are Laura Kelly '06, G. Burch Fisher '03 and Joseph Coish, a 2005 graduate of Middlebury Union High School.

Mr. Manley acknowledged Vermont Senator Leahy as one of the main enablers of their research. "If it weren't for his help in bringing money into the basin project, what we did would never have been possible," he said. Leahy praised the effort, noting the vast quantity of shipwrecks found as an indication that Lake Champlain may be one of North America's most historically important bodies of water. He extended his commendations to a more environmental realm as well. Finding "this new map, with its new insights into the bottom topography of the lake is an invaluable aid to researchers in understanding the role of hyrodynamics in the lake's living ecology," Leahy said.

According to Mr. Manley, the map will also help in broadening navigational possibilities. With its completion, the number of navigational data points available has multiplied substantially. Fisheries concerned with locating areas of spawning are already expressing interest in the new research. Manley speculates that municipalities may also find the map useful in implementing water intake and sewage discharge pipes.

Art Cohn, of the LCMM, served as the survey's project manager. Like Leahy, he referred to the newly discovered shipwrecks as a nationally important historic refiguring. Importantly, the state-of-the-art technology used in the project allowed these shipwrecks to be documented in their pre-zebra mussel condition. The new sets of data are helping to create a more correct understanding of the evolution of Lake Champlain.

For seven years, oceanography and marine geology students helped to collect information. Their homework took place atop the R/V Baldwin -a research vessel owned by the college and captained by Mr. Manley. The results of this research, illustrated by the map, include new shoals, rises, plateaus and faults. Additionally, the understanding of previously identified structures - such as Juniper Ridge, located off Burlington Bay - is now significantly more comprehensive.

While the original data for earlier maps of the lake bottom involved less than 10,000 measurements, the new map draws on almost 735,000 measurements. But still more work will be done. "We need to go back out there to fill in some of the gaps," Mrs. Manley said. She added that new instrumentation permits a further exploration the lake's sub-bottom, at the sediments and material that make up Champlain's deeper history.