Publications

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck southern Puget Sound, Washington, USA on February 28, 2001 causing an estimated $0.7 billion to $1.4 billion in damages to the surrounding area (Williams et al, 2001). The epicenter was close to the Nisqually delta, one of three major deltas in southern Puget Sound (Figure 1). The Nisqually delta is a wildlife refuge but the other two deltas, the Duwamish delta in

Heavy or high-density minerals in the 63-250-_m (micron) size fraction (very fine and fine sand) were analyzed from 36 beach and offshore sites (38 samples) of the Palos Verdes margin to determine the areal and temporal mineralogic distributions and the relation of those distributions to the deposit affected by material discharged from the Los Angeles County Sanitation District sewage system (Lee,

Coastal erosion is widespread and locally severe in Hawaii and other low-latitude areas. Typical erosion rates in Hawaii are in the range of 15 to 30 cm/yr (0.5 to 1 ft/yr; Hwang, 1981; Sea Engineering, Inc., 1988; Makai Ocean Engineering, Inc. and Sea Engineering, Inc.,1991). Recent studies on Oahu (Fletcher et al., 1997; Coyne et al., 1996) have shown that nearly 24%, or 27.5 km (17.1 mi) of an

This report presents physical property logs of core samples from an offshore area near Eureka, CA. The cores were obtained as part of the STRATAFORM Program (Nittrouer and Kravitz, 1995, 1996), a study investigating how present sedimentation and sediment transport processes influence long-term stratigraphic sequences preserved in the geologic record. The core samples were collected during four sep

In 1946, 1960, and 1964, major tsunamis (giant sea waves usually caused by earthquakes or submarine landslides) struck coastal areas of the Pacific Ocean. In the U.S. alone, these tsunamis killed hundreds of people and caused many tens of millions of dollars in damage. Recent events in Papua New Guinea (1998) and elsewhere are reminders that a catastrophic tsunami could strike U.S. coasts at any t

During January and February 1998 the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Team (USGS) conducted regional high-resolution multibeam mapping surveys of the area surrounding EPA-designated ocean disposal sites located offshore of the Hawaiian Islands of Oahu, Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii. The sites are all located within 5 nautical miles of shore on insular shelves or slopes. Regional maps we

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) was used to investigate the internal structure of two large landslides in Anchorage, Alaska that resulted from the great 1964 earthquake. The Government Hill and Turnagain Heights landslides occurred in similar stratigraphic and geographic settings, yet the style of ground deformation is different at each site. GPR data are compared with previous investigations and a

Current methods of monitoring beach morphology changes commonly involve the establishment of Global Positioning System profiles that are surveyed on a regular basis. Although this method produces precise measurements of coastal topography, it is costly in time and effort and may result in large data gaps between profiles. Much of our understanding of coastal dynamics is thus limited by profile spa

No abstract available.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the great features of our planet. It plays a pivotal role in global atmospheric circulation and the sea-ice zone around it produces cold waters that control much of the ocean’s deep circulation. The Antarctic Ice Sheet is also the largest store of fresh water on earth and controls short-term sea level changes. The history of the Antarctic Ice Sheet has been pieced

Antarctic climate history has been dominated by events and turning points with causes that are poorly understood. To fill the gaps in our knowledges new effort is underway in the international geologic community to acquire and coordinate the circum‐Antarctic geologic data needed to derive and model paleoenvironments of the past 130 m.y. The effort, which focuses principally on using shallow (<100

The tsunami that struck Papua New Guinea on 17 July 1998 shortly after a Mw 7.0 earthquake (Figure 1) was one of the deadliest tsunamis in this century. At least 2,200 people died from this event, essentially destroying an entire generation in some communities. In the months following the tsunami, several international survey teams collected data in an attempt to better understand the cause of thi