BlockBefore
Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Ocean Bluff, Massachusetts

34 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Marshfield town. It lies in ZIP code area 02050. It stands on Bass Creek. The Survey maps it on the Duxbury quadrangle.

Ocean Bluff within Plymouth County

Then and now

1885 to 1984

The same ground, surveyed 99 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Ocean Bluff, surveyed 1984
Topographic sheet of Ocean Bluff, surveyed 1885

Topographic sheets covering this place

34 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires nearby

111 since 2015

The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 111 fires within 5 miles of Ocean Bluff between 2015 and 2020, burning about 33 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning72
Missing data/not specified/undetermined32
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Smoking1
Arson/incendiarism1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 September 2015Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARSHFIELD
6 September 2020Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
6 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARSHFIELD
6 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARSHFIELD
5 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARSHFIELD
5 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire ControlMARSHFIELD
4 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Plymouth County

Specimens collected nearby

12 of 1,212 shown

Museums hold 1,212 specimens collected within 10 miles of Ocean Bluff between 1838 and 1975: 615 Animalia, 303 Plantae, 146 Fungi, 121 Unrecorded, 27 Chromista. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by -- Russell, A., A. C. Mathieson and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
Specimen of Taphrina Fr., 1815Taphrina Fr., 18151900Seymour, Arthur BlissPlymouth Woods, Mass. [Massachusetts]
Specimen of Trientalis borealis Raf.Trientalis borealis Raf.1900not recorded
A photograph of the species Myriophyllum humile, not of this specimenMyriophyllum humile (Raf.) Morong1838W Oakes
A photograph of the species Utricularia cornuta, not of this specimenUtricularia cornuta Michx.1840NonePlymouth
Carex stellata Mack.1842Collector unspecified[Half May Pond], Plymouth.
A photograph of the species Pseudevernia consocians, not of this specimenPseudevernia consocians (Vainio) Hale & W.L.Culb.1849-- RussellKingston
A photograph of the species Baptisia tinctoria, not of this specimenBaptisia tinctoria (L.) R.Br.1853not recorded
A photograph of the species Coreopsis rosea, not of this specimenCoreopsis rosea Nutt.1855J. Blake
A photograph of the species Ionactis linariifolia, not of this specimenIonactis linariifolia (L.) Greene1855not recorded
A photograph of the species Juncus pelocarpus, not of this specimenJuncus pelocarpus E.Mey.1855J. BlakePlymouth.
A photograph of the species Cyperus lupulinus, not of this specimenCyperus lupulinus subsp. macilentus (Fernald) Marcks1899E. F. Williams
Lolium multiflorum Lam.1899not recorded

All 1,212 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries nearby

5 within 5 miles

The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Ocean Bluff: 4 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Cherry Street Plant, MayflowerSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Marshfield Pit & PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Marshfield Sand and Gravel CoSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
South River Sand and GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast ProducerSedimentary
South River Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Plymouth County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Fieldston0.9 miles34
Brant Rock1.0 miles34
Green Harbor1.4 miles34
Cedar Crest1.6 miles34
Rexhame1.6 miles34
Kent Park2.1 miles34
Old Mouth North River2.4 miles39
Marshfield2.8 miles34

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikidata item Q122559097The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 615274. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.