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Scientific reports, journal articles, and information products produced by USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists.

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Book review: Extreme ocean waves

“Extreme Ocean Waves”, edited by E. Pelinovsky and C. Kharif, second edition, Springer International Publishing, 2016; ISBN: 978-3-319-21574-7, ISBN (eBook): 978-3-319-21575-4The second edition of “Extreme Ocean Waves” published by Springer is an update of a collection of 12 papers edited by Efim Pelinovsky and Christian Kharif following the April 2007 meeting of the General Assembly of the Europe
Authors
Eric L. Geist

A global probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment from earthquake sources

Large tsunamis occur infrequently but have the capacity to cause enormous numbers of casualties, damage to the built environment and critical infrastructure, and economic losses. A sound understanding of tsunami hazard is required to underpin management of these risks, and while tsunami hazard assessments are typically conducted at regional or local scales, globally consistent assessments are requ
Authors
Gareth Davies, Jonathan Griffin, Finn Lovholt, Sylfest Glimsdal, Carl Harbitz, Hong Kie Thio, Stefano Lorito, Roberto Basili, Jacopo Selva, Eric L. Geist, Maria Ana Baptista

Is “morphodynamic equilibrium” an oxymoron?

Morphodynamic equilibrium is a widely adopted yet elusive concept in the field of geomorphology of coasts, rivers and estuaries. Based on the Exner equation, an expression of mass conservation of sediment, we distinguish three types of equilibrium defined as static and dynamic, of which two different types exist. Other expressions such as statistical and quasi-equilibrium which do not strictly sat
Authors
Zeng Zhou, Giovanni Coco, Ian Townend, Maitane Olabarrieta, Mick van der Wegen, Zheng Gong, Andrea D'Alpaos, Shu Gao, Bruce E. Jaffe, Guy R. Gelfenbaum, Qing He, Yaping Wang, Stefano Lanzoni, Zhengbing Wang, Han Winterwerp, Changkuan Zhang

Habitat suitability models for groundfish in the Gulf of Alaska

Identifying and quantifying the major ecosystem processes that regulate recruitment strength of commercially and ecologically important fish species is a central goal of fisheries management research. In the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) five groundfish species are of particular interest: sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria), Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus), walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus), arrowtooth fl
Authors
Jodi L. Pirtle, S. Kalei Shotwell, Mark Zimmermann, Jane A. Reid, Nadine E. Golden

Interactions of estuarine shoreline infrastructure with multiscale sea level variability

Sea level rise increases the risk of storms and other short‐term water‐rise events, because it sets a higher water level such that coastal surges become more likely to overtop protections and cause floods. To protect coastal communities, it is necessary to understand the interaction among multiday and tidal sea level variabilities, coastal infrastructure, and sea level rise. We performed a series
Authors
Ruo-Quian Wang, Liv M. Herdman, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard, Michelle Hummel, Mark T. Stacey

Controls of multi-modal wave conditions in a complex coastal setting

Coastal hazards emerge from the combined effect of wave conditions and sea level anomalies associated with storms or low-frequency atmosphere-ocean oscillations. Rigorous characterization of wave climate is limited by the availability of spectral wave observations, the computational cost of dynamical simulations, and the ability to link wave-generating atmospheric patterns with coastal conditions.
Authors
Christie Hegermiller, Ana C. Rueda, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard, J.A.A. Antolinez, Fernando J. Mendez

Investigation of input reduction techniques for morphodynamic modeling of complex inlets with baroclinic forcing

The Mouth of the Columbia River (MCR) is a complex estuary inlet system characterized by a buoyant plume created by high freshwater flows from the Columbia River into the Pacific Ocean. Data obtained during two major field campaigns have resulted in a comprehensive dataset of hydrodynamics and sediment transport under high (2013) and low (2005) river flow conditions. Through the analysis of this d
Authors
Guy R. Gelfenbaum, Edwin Elias, Andrew W. Stevens

Mudflat morphodynamics and the impact of sea level rise in South San Francisco Bay

Estuarine tidal mudflats form unique habitats and maintain valuable ecosystems. Historic measurements of a mudflat in San Fancsico Bay over the past 150 years suggest the development of a rather stable mudflat profile. This raises questions on its origin and governing processes as well as on the mudflats’ fate under scenarios of sea level rise and decreasing sediment supply. We developed a 1D morp
Authors
Mick Van der Wegen, Bruce E. Jaffe, Amy C. Foxgrover, Dano Roelvink

New techniques to measure cliff change from historical oblique aerial photographs and structure-from-motion photogrammetry

Oblique aerial photograph surveys are commonly used to document coastal landscapes. Here it is shown that adequate overlap may exist in these photographic records to develop topographic models with Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric techniques. Using photographs of Fort Funston, California, from the California Coastal Records Project, imagery were combined with ground control points in a
Authors
Jonathan Warrick, Andy Ritchie, Gabrielle Adelman, Ken Adelman, Patrick W. Limber

Introduction to “Global tsunami science: Past and future, Volume I”

Twenty-five papers on the study of tsunamis are included in Volume I of the PAGEOPH topical issue “Global Tsunami Science: Past and Future”. Six papers examine various aspects of tsunami probability and uncertainty analysis related to hazard assessment. Three papers relate to deterministic hazard and risk assessment. Five more papers present new methods for tsunami warning and detection. Six paper
Authors
Eric L. Geist, Hermann Fritz, Alexander B. Rabinovich, Yuichiro Tanioka

A multimodal wave spectrum-based approach for statistical downscaling of local wave climate

Characterization of wave climate by bulk wave parameters is insufficient for many coastal studies, including those focused on assessing coastal hazards and long-term wave climate influences on coastal evolution. This issue is particularly relevant for studies using statistical downscaling of atmospheric fields to local wave conditions, which are often multimodal in large ocean basins (e.g. the Pac
Authors
Christie Hegermiller, Jose A. A. Antolinez, Ana C. Rueda, Paula Camus, Jorge Perez, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard, Fernando J. Mendez

High-resolution seismic-reflection data from offshore northern California — Bolinas to Sea Ranch

The U.S. Geological Survey collected high-resolution seismic-reflection data in September 2009, on survey S-8-09-NC, offshore of northern California between Bolinas and Sea Ranch.The survey area spans about 125 km of California’s coast and extends around Point Reyes. Data were collected aboard the U.S. Geological Survey R/V Parke Snavely. Cumulatively, ~1,150 km of seismic-reflection data were acq
Authors
Ray W. Sliter, Samuel Y. Johnson, John L. Chin, Parker Allwardt, Jeffrey Beeson, Peter J. Triezenberg
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