John A. Goff  (personal page)   Back to John's   staff page Curriculum Vitae   Telephone: 512-471-0476 Fax: 512-471-0999   email: goff@ ig.utexas.edu

Senior Research Scientist
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1990);  B.S., Brown University (1985) 

Marine Geophysics and Statistical Geomorphology
Seafloor mapping and characterization; statistical analysis of geophysical fields, including abyssal hills, shelf bathymetry, sea ice draft, and crustal heterogeneity.

John's Spotlights:
In August, 2007 I was chief scientist aboard a coring cruise to the New Jersey shelf aboard the R/V Knorr.  Cruise report will be coming soon.

I am the proud father of son Cameron and daughter Megan (updated June, 2006). 

Research Interests
My primary current field research interest is in mapping and characterization of seafloor morphology and sedimentary properties in continental shelf settings using swath sonar, grain size analysis of samples from grabs and cores, and measurements of physical properties of seabed sediments.  Past research included shallow-water surveys of active (northern California) and passive (New Jersey) continental margins. Both efforts were part of the Office of Naval Research's STRATAFORM program. The New Jersey shelf has since become an ongoing focus of my research, with continued funding by the Navy as it looks to this area as one of its premier natural laboratories for acoustic experimentation in shallow water environments.  As part of ONR's  Geoclutter program, which aims to understand the nature of signal-like acoustic returns from the natural shallow water environment, I have participated in an intensive, multidisciplinary, multi-institution effort to characterize seabed stratigraphy properties in this region.  The geological and geophysical goals are centered on understanding the morphologic and stratigraphic evolution of this setting during the last ~40 kyr of geologic history.  Geoclutter G&G field work has included chirp seismic data acquisition, grab sampling (photo at right) and short coring to characterize lithology and grain size of seafloor sediments, in situ geotechnical measurements, and long coring using the AHC-800 coring system.   The outer New Jersey shelf was also be the focus of a large, ONR-sponsored "Shallow Water Experiment" in 2006, which will include participants from low-frequency, mid-frequency, and clutter acoustic experimentalists as well as additional G&G characterization.  Another recent focus of my field efforts fell within ONR's Mine Burial Prediction program, which seeks to understand how man-made objects placed on the seafloor are buried and exposed by nearshore processes.  The Martha's Vineyard Coastal Observatory was one of the primary focus sites, and in 2002 I led a multi-institution effort to characterize the geology and geophysics of this area (see figures below).  Our primary scientific goal was to understand the nature of so-called rippled scour depressions, the dominant seabed morphology in this setting and in many other near-shore environments where sediment input is very low.  This work, primarily in collaboration with colleagues at UNH, included multiple swath mapping campaigns to investigate temporal evolution of the seabed, chirp seismic reflection, grab sampling, in situ measurements of acoustic velocity and porosity, and vibracoring. 

Statistical characterization provides quantitative tools necessary for relating complex morphology to the geological processes which form or interact with them, and a means for digitally simulating chaotic natural phenomena.   My work in this field of interest has led to analysis of a diverse range of data sets, including abyssal hill morphology (my thesis), sea ice drafts, continental shelf sand ridges, shelf stratigraphy, crustal heterogeneity, and seafloor sediment variability.  The latter topic is a recent research focus.  In particular, I've conducted a collaborative effort with the USGS and Colorado University to analyze the SEABED data base, which includes estimates of grain size from many thousands of locations world wide.  We are interested in understanding how sediment properties vary as a function of geologic environment, and in developing methodologies for robust interpolation of noisy point measurements.  I have also begun a new project to discern abyssal hill roughness properties from satellite altimetry data.  This project, funded by ONR, is a collaborative with Brian Arbic and Walter Smith.  Brian is a recently-hired physical oceanographer at UTIG who will utilize my seafloor roughness inputs to predict the formation of internal waves in the ocean.

Currently Funded Research Projects:
Vibracoring on the New Jersey Shelf: Investigating the Stratigraphic Response to ~50,000 Years of Eustasy

Spatial variability and robust interpolation of seafloor sediment properties using the SEABED data bases

Stratigraphic and Geoacoustic Characterization of the Outer New Jersey Shelf

Effects of small-scale bathymetric roughness on the global internal wave field

Completed Research Projects:
ONR Geoclutter Program

Seabed Variability and its Influence on Acoustic Prediction Uncertainty

Site Survey of the Mine Burial/Coastal Processes Experiment Site at the WHOI Coastal Observatory, Martha’s Vineyard

Building a Statistical Framework for Mine Burial Predictions

Geophysical Investigation of En Echelon Cracks Along the Outer Shelf Off Virginia/North Carolina - Implications for Slope Stability

Realistic Interpolation of Buried Channel Systems within the New Jersey Geoclutter Natural Laboratory

Statistical Characterization of Bathymetry and Stratigraphy on Continental Margins

Geologic and Geophysical Support for the Geoclutter acoustic reconnaissance field program.

JOI Site Survey Augmentation - Grab Sampling and Chirp Sonar on the New Jersey Margin

Quantitative Characterization of Crustal Heterogeneity: Implications for Seismic Wave Propagation

Stochastic Modeling of Abyssal Hill Morphology: New Seafloor Models Based on Analysis of Fine Scale Basement Topography and Separate Characterization of Tectonic and Volcanic Morphology

Reprints for published and submitted papers:
Seismic facies of incised valley-fills, New Jersey continental shelf: Implications for erosion and preservation processes acting during late Pleistocene/Holocene transgression (PDF reprint)

Maximum a posteriori resampling of noisy, spatially correlated data (PDF reprint)

Recent and modern marine erosion on the New Jersey outer shelf (PDF reprint)

Seismic geomorphology of buried channel systems on the New Jersey outer shelf: Assessing past environmental conditions (PDF reprint)

The contributions of abyssal hill morphology and noise to altimetric gravity fabric (PDF reprint)

The correspondence of altimetric gravity texture to abyssal hill morphology (PDF reprint)

Detailed investigation of sorted bedforms, or “rippled scour depressions,” within the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory, Massachusetts (PDF reprint)

Seabed characterization on the New Jersey middle and outer shelf: Correlability and spatial variability of seafloor sediment properties (PDF reprint)

Interpolation of fluvial morphology using channel-oriented coordinate transformation: A case study from the New Jersey shelf (PDF reprint)

Mine Burial Prediction Technical Report: A Statistical Framework for Monte Carlo Mine Burial Modeling Experiments (PDF file)

Spatial Variability of Shelf Sediments in the STRATAFORM Natural Laboratory, Northern California (PDF Reprint)

Quantitative classification of canyon systems on continental slopes and a possible relationship to slope curvature (PDF Reprint)

Relict iceberg keel marks on the New Jersey outer shelf, southern Hudson Apron (PDF Reprint)

Tracking the last sea level cycle: Seafloor morphology and shallow stratigraphy of the latest Quaternary New Jersey middle continental shelf (PDF Reprint)

Potential for large-scale submarine slope failure and tsunami generation along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast (PDF Reprint)

Correlation of sidescan backscatter intensity with grain-size distribution of shelf sediments, New Jersey margin (PDF Reprint)

High resolution swath sonar investigation of sand ridge, dune and ribbon morphology in the offshore environment of the New Jersey margin (PDF Reprint)

Nature and origin of upper crustal seismic velocity fluctuations and associated scaling properties: combined stochastic analyses of KTB velocity and lithology logs  (PDF Reprint)

Detailed investigation of continental shelf morphology using a high resolution swath sonar survey: The Eel margin, northern California (PDF Reprint)

Simulation of stratigraphic architecture from statistical and geometrical characterizations (PDF Reprint)

Improvement of Fourier-based unconditional and conditional simulations for band limited fractal (von Karman) statistical models (PDF Reprint)