Collaborative Federal Investigation Reveals Cause of Huntington Oil Spill
The Complex Dynamics of Coastal Flooding along the Southeast U.S. Atlantic Coast
A Benchmarking Framework for Shoreline Monitoring Accuracy
Modeling Coastal Flooding Dynamics Along the U.S. Southeast Atlantic Coast
Paleoclimate: Lessons from the past, roadmap for the future
Alaska Coastal Communities' Exposure to Climate Change-Induced Flooding
Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information System Enhances Flood Prediction in San Francisco Bay Area
Modeling Wave Dynamics to Assess Coastal Erosion Threats Along Alaska's Arctic Coast
USGS-led Study: Sediment Management is Key to Preserving Puget Sound's Estuarine Habitats
Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
We conduct multidisciplinary scientific research in the coastal and offshore areas of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, and other US Pacific Islands; and in other waterways of the United States.
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Research Projects
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News
Sediment Flows Create Seafloor Pockmarks offshore of Central California
Sediment Flows Create Seafloor Pockmarks offshore of Central California
Studying Tsunami Sands to Better Understand the 1700 Cascadia Earthquake
Studying Tsunami Sands to Better Understand the 1700 Cascadia Earthquake
Collaborative Federal Investigation Reveals Cause of Huntington Oil Spill
Collaborative Federal Investigation Reveals Cause of Huntington Oil Spill
Publications
Pockmarks offshore Big Sur, California provide evidence for recurrent, regional, and unconfined sediment gravity flows
Recent surface ship multibeam surveys of the Sur Pockmark Field, offshore Central California, reveal >5,000 pockmarks in an area that is slated to host a wind farm, between 500- and 1,500-m water depth. Extensive fieldwork was conducted to characterize the seafloor environment and its recent geologic history, including visual observations with remotely operated vehicles, sediment core sampling, an
Evidence on the ecological and physical effects of built structures in shallow, tropical coral reefs: A systematic map
Shallow, tropical coral reefs face compounding threats from climate change, habitat degradation due to coastal development and pollution, impacts from storms and sea-level rise, and pulse disturbances like blast fishing, mining, dredging, and ship groundings that reduce reef height and complexity. One approach toward restoring coral reef physical structure from such impacts is deploying built stru
Late-Quaternary surface displacements on accretionary wedge splay faults in the Cascadia Subduction Zone: Implications for megathrust rupture
Because splay faults branch at a steep dip angle from the plate-boundary décollement in an accretionary wedge, their coseismic displacement can potentially result in larger tsunamis with distinct characteristics compared to megathrust-only fault ruptures, posing an enhanced hazard to coastal communities. Elsewhere, there is evidence of coseismic slip on splay faults during many of the largest subd
Science
Post-Fire Sediment Research at the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center (PCMSC) in Santa Cruz, California, has been growing our post-fire research contributions since 2017, through studies of post-fire sediment movement that address the Natural Hazards Mission Area objectives for understanding wildfire hazards.
Anthropogenic Nutrient Loading and Coral Health at Ofu, American Samoa
Declining water quality poses a significant and persistent threat to coral reefs worldwide, contributing to their widespread degradation. Identifying the specific impacts of water quality stressors is challenging due to the complex interplay of various physical and biological factors affecting reef health. Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) plays a crucial role in transporting nutrients into...
Developing a USGS Digital Coral Growth Archive using Rotating X-Ray Computerized Tomography - The ACTS Project
The Archival Computed Tomography Scanning Project (ACTS) currently develops the USGS Coral Core Archive, housed at the Pacific and St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Centers, that contains approximately 500 coral reef cores from U.S. jurisdictions worldwide. This archive, is one of the largest coral archives in the world and provides historical context for coral-reef science studies...