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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: 1334
Faunal and stable isotopic analyses of benthic foraminifera from the Southeast Seep on Kimki Ridge offshore southern California, USA
We investigated the benthic foraminiferal faunal and stable carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of a 15-cm push core (NA075-092b) obtained on a Telepresence-Enabled cruise to the Southeast Seep on Kimki Ridge offshore southern California. The seep core was taken at a depth of 973 m in the vicinity of a Beggiatoa bacterial mat and vesicomyid clams (Calyptogena) and compared to previously publish
Authors
Mary McGann, James E. Conrad
Three-dimensional modeling of fine sediment transport by waves and currents in a shallow estuary
A suspended sediment transport model is implemented in the unstructured‐grid SUNTANS model and applied to study fine‐grained sediment transport in South San Francisco Bay. The model enables calculation of suspension of bottom sediment based on combined forcing of tidal currents and wind waves. We show that accurate results can be obtained by employing two‐size classes which are representative of m
Authors
Yi-Ju Chou, Kurt S. Nelson, Rusty C. Holleman, Oliver B. Fringer, Mark T. Stacey, Jessica R. Lacy, Stephen G. Monismith, Jeffrey R. Koseff
Meteorologic, oceanographic, and geomorphic controls on circulation and residence time in a coral reef-lined embayment: Faga’alu Bay, American Samoa
Water circulation over coral reefs can determine the degree to which reef organisms are exposed to the overlying waters, so understanding circulation is necessary to interpret spatial patterns in coral health. Because coral reefs often have high geomorphic complexity, circulation patterns and the duration of exposure, or “local residence time” of a water parcel, can vary substantially over small d
Authors
Curt D. Storlazzi, Olivia M. Cheriton, A. M. Messina, Trent W. Biggs
Neotectonics of the Big Sur Bend, San Gregorio‐Hosgri fault system, central California
The right‐lateral San Gregorio‐Hosgri fault system (SGHF) extends mainly offshore for about 400 km along the central California coast and is a major structure in the distributed transform margin of western North America. We mapped a poorly known 64‐km‐long section of the SGHF offshore Big Sur between Piedras Blancas and Point Sur using high‐resolution bathymetry, seismic reflection, and marine mag
Authors
Samuel Y. Johnson, Janet Watt, Stephen Hartwell, Jared W. Kluesner
Slope failure and mass transport processes along the Queen Charlotte Fault Zone, western British Columbia
Multibeam echosounder (MBES) images, 3.5 kHz seismic-reflection profiles and piston cores obtained along the southern Queen Charlotte Fault Zone are used to map and date mass-wasting events at this transform margin – a seismically active boundary that separates the Pacific Plate from the North American Plate. Whereas the upper continental slope adjacent to and east (upslope) of the fault zone offs
Authors
H. G. Greene, J. Vaughn Barrie, Daniel S. Brothers, James E. Conrad, Kim Conway, Amy E. East, Randolph J. Enkin, Katherine L. Maier, Maureen A. L. Walton, K .M. M. Rohr
Projected 21st century coastal flooding in the Southern California Bight. Part 1: Development of the third generation CoSMoS model
Due to the effects of climate change over the course of the next century, the combination of rising sea levels, severe storms, and coastal change will threaten the sustainability of coastal communities, development, and ecosystems as we know them today. To clearly identify coastal vulnerabilities and develop appropriate adaptation strategies due to projected increased levels of coastal flooding an
Authors
Andrea C. O'Neill, Li H. Erikson, Patrick L. Barnard, Patrick W. Limber, Sean Vitousek, Jonathan Warrick, Amy C. Foxgrover, Jessica Lovering
Slope failure and mass transport processes along the Queen Charlotte Fault, southeastern Alaska
The Queen Charlotte Fault defines the Pacific–North America transform plate boundary in western Canada and southeastern Alaska for c. 900 km. The entire length of the fault is submerged along a continental margin dominated by Quaternary glacial processes, yet the geomorphology along the margin has never been systematically examined due to the absence of high-resolution seafloor mapping data. Hence
Authors
Daniel Brothers, Brian D. Andrews, Maureen A. L. Walton, H. Gary Greene, J. Vaughn Barrie, Nathaniel C. Miller, Uri S. ten Brink, Amy E. East, Peter J. Haeussler, Jared W. Kluesner, James E. Conrad
Spatial variability of sediment transport processes over intratidal and subtidal timescales within a fringing coral reef system
Sediment produced on fringing coral reefs that is transported along the bed or in suspension affects ecological reef communities as well as the morphological development of the reef, lagoon, and adjacent shoreline. This study quantified the physical process contribution and relative importance of sea‐swell waves, infragravity waves, and mean currents to the spatial and temporal variability of sedi
Authors
Andrew Pomeroy, Ryan J. Lowe, Marco Ghisalberti, Gundula Winter, Curt D. Storlazzi, Michael V. W. Cuttler
Estimating fluvial discharges coincident with 21st century coastal storms modeled with CoSMoS
On the open coast, flooding is largely driven by tides, storm surge, waves, and in areas near coastal inlets, the magnitude and co-occurrence of high fluvial discharges. Statistical methods are typically used to estimate the individual probability of coastal storm and fluvial discharge occurrences for use in sophisticated flood hazard models. A challenge arises when considering possible future cli
Authors
Li H. Erikson, Andrea C. O'Neill, Patrick L. Barnard
The influence of sea level rise on the regional interdependence of coastal infrastructure
Sea level rise (SLR) is placing both immediate and long‐term pressures on coastal communities to take protective actions. Projects in the United States, and in many locations throughout the world, generally involve local jurisdictions raising the elevation of shoreline protection elements, with limited or no analysis of the feedback between shoreline management decisions and the impacts to water l
Authors
Ruo-Quian Wang, Mark T. Stacey, Liv M. Herdman, Patrick L. Barnard, Li H. Erikson
Effect of dynamical phase on the resonant interaction among tsunami edge wave modes
Different modes of tsunami edge waves can interact through nonlinear resonance. During this process, edge waves that have very small initial amplitude can grow to be as large or larger than the initially dominant edge wave modes. In this study, the effects of dynamical phase are established for a single triad of edge waves that participate in resonant interactions. In previous studies, Jacobi elli
Authors
Eric L. Geist
Introduction to “Global tsunami science: Past and future, Volume III”
Twenty papers on the study of tsunamis are included in Volume III of the PAGEOPH topical issue “Global Tsunami Science: Past and Future”. Volume I of this topical issue was published as PAGEOPH, vol. 173, No. 12, 2016 and Volume II as PAGEOPH, vol. 174, No. 8, 2017. Two papers in Volume III focus on specific details of the 2009 Samoa and the 1923 northern Kamchatka tsunamis; they are followed by t
Authors
Alexander B. Rabinovich, Hermann M. Fritz, Yuichiro Tanioka, Eric L. Geist