Publications

The Puerto Rico Trench, the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean, is located where the North American (NOAM) plate is subducting under the Caribbean plate (Figure l). The trench region may pose significant seismic and tsunami hazards to Puerto Rico and the U.S.Virgin Islands, where 4 million U.S. citizens reside. Widespread damage in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola from an earthquake in 1787 was estimate

No abstract available.

Several large research programs focused on the Adriatic Sea in winter 2002-2003, making it an exciting place for sediment dynamics modelers (Figure 1). Investigations of atmospheric forcing and oceanic response (including wave generation and propagation, water-mass formation, stratification, and circulation), suspended material, bottom boundary layer dynamics, bottom sediment, and small-scale stra

A pilot distributed geolibrary, the Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB), was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, to classify, integrate, and facilitate access to scientific information about oceans, coasts, and lakes. The MRIB is composed of a categorization scheme, a metadata database, and a specialized softwar

Fresh ground water is widely distributed in subsurface sediments below the coastal bays of the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia). These conditions were revealed by nearly 300 km of streamer resistivity surveys, utilizing a towed multichannel cable system. Zones of high resistivity displayed by inversion modeling were confirmed by vibradrilling investigations to correspond to fr

We have presented a summary of measurements on the physical properties of sediments relevant to methane hydrate recovery. The data includes not only geotechnical determinations, but also the CMT data that gives porosity values and pathways through the sediment material. The results show that CMT techniques can be used to study sediment properties on a micrometer-size scale. Since the technique is

Anthropogenic activities primarily impact coasts by reducing sediment inputs, altering sediment transport processes, and accelerating sediment losses to the offshore. These activities include: sand and gravel extraction, navigation and shore protection works; non-structural shoreline management strategies such as beach nourishment, sand by-passing and beach scraping, dams and flood control works;

The small bays along the Atlantic coast of the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia) are a valuable natural resource, and an asset for commerce and recreation. These coastal bays also are vulnerable to eutrophication from the input of excess nutrients derived from agriculture and other human activities in the watersheds. Ground water discharge may be an appreciable source of fres

36 million years ago an extraterrestrial body struck the present-day Chesapeake Bay area, altering the evolution of the Virginia Coastal plain. The crater affects almost 2 million people of the region u through subsidence, faulting and the presence of saline groundwater.

Satellite images from 1972 to 1997 have been used to prepare a map showing glaciological features of the Saunders Coast area, Antarctica. Analysis of the imagery shows a trend toward ice-front retreat that may be a result of changing environmental conditions.

Mobile fishing gear reduces seafloor habitat complexity through the removal of structure-building fauna, e.g. emergent organisms that create pits and burrows, as well as by smoothing of sedimentary bedforms (e.g. sand ripples). In this study, we compared the relative abundance of microhabitat features (the scale at which individual fish associate with seafloor habitat) inside and outside of a larg

This paper presents results of shear strength and acoustic velocity (p-wave) measurements performed on: (1) samples containing natural gas hydrate from the Mallik 2L-38 well, Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories; (2) reconstituted Ottawa sand samples containing methane gas hydrate formed in the laboratory; and (3) ice-bearing sands. These measurements show that hydrate increases shear strength a