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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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Filter Total Items: 1331
Subduction megathrust heterogeneity characterized from 3D seismic data
Megathrust roughness and structural complexity are thought to be controls on earthquake slip at subduction zones because they result in heterogeneity in shear strength and resolved stress. However, because active megathrust faults are difficult to observe, the causes and scales of complexity are largely unknown. Here we measured the in situ properties of the megathrust of the Middle America subduc
Authors
James D. Kirkpatrick, Joel H. Edwards, Alessandro Verdecchia, Jared W. Kluesner, Rebecca M. Harrington, Eli Silver
Sea-level rise exponentially increases coastal flood frequency
Sea-level rise will radically redefine the coastline of the 21st century. For many coastal regions, projections of global sea-level rise by the year 2100 (e.g., 0.5–2 meters) are comparable in magnitude to today’s extreme but short-lived increases in water level due to storms. Thus, the 21st century will see significant changes to coastal flooding regimes (where present-day, extreme-but-rare event
Authors
Mohsen Taherkhani, Sean Vitousek, Patrick L. Barnard, L Neil Frazer, Tiffany Anderson, Charles Fletcher
Genesis and evolution of ferromanganese crusts from the summit of Rio Grande Rise, southwest Atlantic Ocean
The Rio Grande Rise (RGR) is a large elevation in the Atlantic Ocean and known to host potential mineral resources of ferromanganese crusts (Fe–Mn), but no investigation into their general characteristics have been made in detail. Here, we investigate the chemical and mineralogical composition, growth rates and ages of initiation, and phosphatization of relatively shallow-water (650–825 m) Fe–Mn c
Authors
Mariana Benites, James R. Hein, Kira Mizell, Terrence Blackburn, Luigi Jovane
Steps to develop early warning systems and future scenarios of wave-driven flooding along coral reef-lined coasts
Tropical coral reef-lined coasts are exposed to storm wave-driven flooding. In the future, flood events during storms are expected to occur more frequently and to be more severe due to sea-level rise, changes in wind and weather patterns, and the deterioration of coral reefs. Hence, disaster managers and coastal planners are in urgent need of decision-support tools. In the short-term, these tools
Authors
Gundula Winter, Curt D. Storlazzi, Sean Vitousek, Ap van Dongeren, Robert T. McCall, Ron Hoeke, William Skirving, John Marra, Johan Reyns, Jerome Aucan, Matthew J. Widlansky, Janet Becker, Chris Perry, Gerd Masselink, Ryan Lowe, Murray Ford, Andrew Pomeroy, Fernando J. Mendez, Ana C. Rueda, Moritz Wandres
Molecular indicators of methane metabolisms at cold seeps along the United States Atlantic margin
A lipid biomarker study was undertaken to determine the microbial composition and variability in authigenic carbonates and associated soft bottom habitats from the Norfolk and the Baltimore Canyon seep fields along the US mid-Atlantic margin. Results from this study capture a distinct molecular signal from methane oxidizing archaea, including archaeol (I), sn-2-hydroxyarchaeol, pentamethylicosane
Authors
Nancy G. Prouty, Pamela L. Campbell, Hilary Close, Jennifer F. Biddle, Sabrina Beckmann
Defining active, inactive, and extinct seafloor massive sulfide deposits
Hydrothermal activity results in the formation of hydrothermal mineral deposits, including seafloor massive sulfide deposits, at oceanic spreading ridges, arcs, and back-arcs. As hydrothermal systems age, the mineral deposits eventually become severed from the heat source and fluid-flow pathways responsible for their formation and become extinct. The timescales and processes by which this cessatio
Authors
John W. Jamieson, Amy Gartman
Mapping metabolic activity at single cell resolution in intact volcanic fumarole soil
Interactions among microorganisms and their mineralogical substrates govern the structure, function, and emergent properties of microbial communities. These interactions are predicated on spatial relationships, which dictate metabolite exchange and access to key substrates. To quantitatively assess links between spatial relationships and metabolic activity, this study presents a novel approach to
Authors
Jeffrey J. Marlow, Isabella Colocci, Sean Jungbluth, Nils Moritz Weber, Amy Gartman, Jens Kallmeyer
Anthropogenic pollutants and biomarkers for the identification of 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami deposits (Japan)
Organic geochemistry is commonly used in environmental studies. In tsunami research, however, its applications are in their infancy and it is still rarely used. We present results for two types of organic geochemical markers, biomarkers and anthropogenic markers, present in deposits left by 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami on the Sendai Plain, Japan. As the tsunami inundated the coastal lowland up to 4.85
Authors
Piero Bellanova, Mike Frenken, Klaus Reicherter, Bruce E. Jaffe, Witold Szczucinski, Jan Schwarzbauer
A new technique to calculate earthquake stress transfer and to forecast aftershocks
Coseismic stress changes have been the primary physical principle used to explain aftershocks and triggered earthquakes. However, this method does not adequately forecast earthquake rates and diverse rupture populations when subjected to formal testing. We show that earthquake forecasts can be impaired by assumptions made in physics-based models, such as the existence of hypothetical optimal fault
Authors
Margarita Segou, Thomas E. Parsons
Blind testing of shoreline evolution models
Beaches around the world continuously adjust to daily and seasonal changes in wave and tide conditions, which are themselves changing over longer time-scales. Different approaches to predict multi-year shoreline evolution have been implemented; however, robust and reliable predictions of shoreline evolution are still problematic even in short-term scenarios (shorter than decadal). Here we show res
Authors
Jennifer Montaño, Giovanni Coco, Jose Antolinez, Tomas Beuzen, Karin Bryan, Laura Cagigal, Bruno Castelle, Mark Davidson, Evan B. Goldstein, Raimundo Ibaceta, Déborah Idier, Bonnie C. Ludka, Sina Masoud-Ansari, Fernando Mendez, A. Brad Murray, Nathaniel G. Plant, Katherine Ratlif, Arthur Robinet, Ana Rueda, Nadia Sénéchal, Joshua Simmons, Kristen Splinter, Scott Stephens, Ian Townend, Sean Vitousek, Kilian Vos
Geographic and oceanographic influences on ferromanganese crust composition along a Pacific Ocean meridional transect, 14N to 14S
The major controls on the variability of ferromanganese (FeMn) crust composition have been generally described over the past 40 years; however, most compilation studies lack quantitative statistics and are limited to a small region of several seamounts or compare FeMn crusts from disparate areas of the global oceans. This study provides the first detailed research to address the geographic and ocea
Authors
Kira Mizell, James R. Hein, Phoebe J. Lam, Anthony A.P. Koppers, Hubert Staudigel
National assessment of shoreline change — Historical shoreline change along the north coast of Alaska, Icy Cape to Cape Prince of Wales
Beach erosion is a persistent problem along most open-ocean shores of the United States. Along the Arctic coast of Alaska, coastal erosion is widespread and threatens communities, defense and energy-related infrastructure, and coastal habitat. As coastal populations continue to expand and infrastructure and habitat are increasingly threatened by erosion, there is increased demand for accurate info
Authors
Ann E. Gibbs, Alexander G. Snyder, Bruce M. Richmond