coast and geodetic survey

An operation of the Department of Commerce for the benefit of mariners, pilots, aircraft pilots, land surveyors, radio engineers, scientists, and others, its major activities being the surveying and charting of the coasts of the United States and its possessions to insure the safe navigation of coastal and intracoastal waters; the surveying of lakes, rivers, and other inland waters by hydrographic and topographic methods; the fixing of geographical positions and elevations in the interior of the country, thereby providing a framework for mapping and other engineering work studying tides and currents and making tables thereof; compiling aeronautical charts, making seismological, gravitational, and astronomieal observations and compiling the data obtained thereby to assist in designing structures resistant to earthquakes and providing data for scientific investigation of the crust of the earth.