Publications
Scientific reports, journal articles, and information products produced by USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists.
Filter Total Items: 1337
Revisiting the 1899 earthquake series using integrative geophysical analysis in Yakutat Bay, Alaska
A series of large earthquakes in 1899 affected southeastern Alaska near Yakutat and Disenchantment Bays. The largest of the series, a MW 8.2 event on 10 September 1899, generated an ~12-m-high tsunami and as much as 14.4 m of coseismic uplift in Yakutat Bay, the largest coseismic uplift ever measured. Several complex fault systems in the area are associated with the Yakutat terrane collision with
Authors
Maureen A. L. Walton, Sean P.S. Gulick, Peter J. Haeussler
Continental shelves as detrital mixers: U-Pb and Lu-Hf detrital zircon provenance of the Pleistocene–Holocene Bering Sea and its margins
Continental shelves serve as critical transfer zones in sediment-routing systems, linking the terrestrial erosional and deep-water depositional domains. The degree to which clastic sediment is mixed and homogenized during transfer across broad shelves has important implications for understanding deep-sea detrital records. Wide continental shelves are thought to act as capacitors characterized by t
Authors
Matthew A. Malkowski, Samuel Johnstone, Glenn R. Sharman, Colin J. White, Daniel Scheirer, Ginger Barth
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Deep Sea Exploration, Mapping and Characterization
A numerical study of geomorphic and oceanographic controls on wave-driven runup on fringing reefs with shore-normal channels
Many populated, tropical coastlines fronted by fringing coral reefs are exposed to wave-driven marine flooding that is exacerbated by sea-level rise. Most fringing coral reef are not alongshore uniform, but bisected by shore-normal channels; however, little is known about the influence of such channels on alongshore variations on runup and flooding of the adjacent coastline. We con-ducted a parame
Authors
Curt D. Storlazzi, Annouk Rey, Ap van Dongeren
21st-century stagnation in unvegetated sand-sea activity
Sand seas are vast expanses of Earth’s surface containing large areas of aeolian dunes—topographic patterns manifest from above-threshold winds and a supply of loose sand. Predictions of the role of future climate change for sand-sea activity are sparse and contradictory. Here we examine the impact of climate on all of Earth’s presently-unvegetated sand seas, using ensemble runs of an Earth System
Authors
Andrew Gunn, Amy E. East, Douglas J. Jerolmack
Characterizing storm-induced coastal change hazards along the United States West Coast
Traditional methods to assess the probability of storm-induced erosion and flooding from extreme water levels have limited use along the U.S. West Coast where swell dominates erosion and storm surge is limited. This effort presents methodology to assess the probability of erosion and flooding for the U.S. West Coast from extreme total water levels (TWLs), but the approach is applicable to coastal
Authors
James B. Shope, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard, Curt Storlazzi, Katherine A. Serafin, Kara S. Doran, Hilary F. Stockdon, Borja G. Reguero, Fernando J. Mendez, Sonia Castanedo, Alba Cid, Laura Cagigal, Peter Ruggiero
Mega-depressions on the Cocos Ridge: Links between volcanism, faults, hydrothermal circulation, and dissolution
High-resolution bathymetry and 3D seismic data along the Cocos Ridge reveal a 245 km2 field of ∼1 to 4 km in diameter seafloor depressions. The seafloor depressions are part of a two-tiered honeycomb pattern. The lower-tier depressions have steep faults that truncate strata with chaotic internal reflections consistent with sediment collapse into the depression. These extend into a lens shaped inte
Authors
Jared W. Kluesner, Eli Silver, Nathaniel Bangs, César Ranero, Stephanie Nale, James Gibson, Kirk McIntosh
A global ensemble of ocean wave climate statistics from contemporary wave reanalysis and hindcasts
There are numerous global ocean wave reanalysis and hindcast products currently being distributed and used across different scientific fields. However, there is not a consistent dataset that can sample across all existing products based on a standardized framework. Here, we present and describe the first coordinated multi-product ensemble of present-day global wave fields available to date. This d
Authors
Joao Morim, Li H. Erikson, Mark Hemer, Ian Young, Xiaochun Wang, Nobuhito Mori, T. Shimura, Justin Stopa, Claire Trenham, Lorenzo Mentaschi, S. Gulev, V.D. Sharmar, L. Bricheno, Judy Wolf, Ole Aarnes, Paula Camus, J Bidlot, A. Semedo, B. Reguero, T. Wahl
Seismostratigraphic analysis of Lake Cahuilla sedimentation cycles and fault displacement history beneath the Salton Sea, California, USA
The Salton Trough (southeastern California, USA) is the northernmost transtensional stepover of the Gulf of California oblique-divergent plate boundary and is also where the southern terminus of the San Andreas fault occurs. Until recently, the distribution of active faults in and around the Salton Sea and their displacement histories were largely unknown. Subbottom CHIRP (compressed high-intensit
Authors
Daniel Brothers, Neal W. Driscoll, Graham Kent, Robert L. Baskin, Alistair J. Harding, Annie Kell
Vadose zone thickness limits pore-fluid pressures and acceleration in a large, slow-moving landslide
The rate and timing of hydrologically forced landslides is a complex function of precipitation patterns, material properties, topography, and groundwater hydrology. In the simplest form, however, slopes fail when subsurface pore pressure grows large enough to exceed the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. The capacity for pore pressure rise in a landslide is determined in part by the thickness of the
Authors
C.R. Murphy, N.J. Finnegan, Ferdinand Oberle
The role of pH up-regulation in response to nutrient-enriched, low-pH groundwater discharge
Coral reefs and their ecosystems are threatened by both global stressors, including increasing sea-surface temperatures and ocean acidification (OA), and local stressors such as land-based sources of pollution that can magnify the effects of OA. Corals can physiologically control the chemistry of their internal calcifying fluids (CF) and can thereby regulate their calcification process. Specifical
Authors
Nancy G. Prouty, Marlene Wall, J. Fietzke, Olivia Cheriton, Eleni Anagnostou, Brian Phillip, Adina Paytan
Can coastal habitats rise to the challenge? Resilience of estuarine habitats, carbon accumulation, and economic value to sea-level rise in a Puget Sound estuary
Sea-level rise (SLR) and obstructions to sediment delivery pose challenges to the persistence of estuarine habitats and the ecosystem services they provide. Restoration actions and sediment management strategies may help mitigate such challenges by encouraging the vertical accretion of sediment in and horizontal migration of tidal forests and marshes. We used a process-based soil accretion model (
Authors
Monica Mei Jeen Moritsch, Kristin B. Byrd, Melanie J. Davis, Anthony J. Good, Judith Z. Drexler, James T. Morris, Isa Woo, Lisamarie Windham-Myers, Eric E. Grossman, Glynnis Nakai, Katrina L. Poppe, John M. Rybczyk
Nearshore bathymetric changes along the Alaska Beaufort Sea coast and possible physical drivers
Erosion rates along Alaska's Beaufort Sea coast, among the highest in the world, are negatively impacting communities, industrial and military infrastructure, and wildlife habitat. Decreasing maximal winter ice extent and increasing summer open water duration and extent in the Beaufort Sea may be making the coast more vulnerable to destructive storm waves than during recent, colder, icier decades.
Authors
Mark Zimmermann, Li H. Erikson, Ann E. Gibbs, Megan M. Prescott, Stephen M. Escarzaga, Craig E. Tweedie, Jeremy L. Kasper, Paul X. Duvoy