Publications
Scientific reports, journal articles, and information products produced by USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center scientists.
Filter Total Items: 1331
Description of gravity cores from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, San Francisco Bay, California
Seventy-two gravity cores were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1990, 1991, and 2000 from San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Strait, California. The gravity cores collected within San Pablo Bay contain bioturbated laminated silts and sandy clays, whole and broken bivalve shells (mostly mussels), fossil tube structures, and fine-grained plant or wood fragments. Gravity cores from the channel wal
Authors
Donald L. Woodrow, John L. Chin, Florence L. Wong, Theresa A. Fregoso, Bruce E. Jaffe
Reducing risk where tectonic plates collide—U.S. Geological Survey subduction zone science plan
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) serves the Nation by providing reliable scientific information and tools to build resilience in communities exposed to subduction zone earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. Improving the application of USGS science to successfully reduce risk from these events relies on whole community efforts, with continuing partnerships among scientists and
Authors
Joan S. Gomberg, K. A. Ludwig, Barbara Bekins, Thomas M. Brocher, John Brock, Daniel S. Brothers, Jason D. Chaytor, Arthur Frankel, Eric L. Geist, Matthew M. Haney, Stephen H. Hickman, William S. Leith, Evelyn A. Roeloffs, William H. Schulz, Thomas W. Sisson, Kristi L. Wallace, Janet Watt, Anne M. Wein
Reducing risk where tectonic plates collide
Most of the world’s earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and volcanic eruptions are caused by the continuous motions of the many tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s outer shell. The most powerful of these natural hazards occur in subduction zones, where two plates collide and one is thrust beneath another. The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) “Reducing Risk Where Tectonic Plates Collide—A USGS P
Authors
Joan S. Gomberg, K. A. Ludwig
A new seamless, high-resolution digital elevation model of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, California
Climate change, sea-level rise, and human development have contributed to the changing geomorphology of the San Francisco Bay - Delta (Bay-Delta) Estuary system. The need to predict scenarios of change led to the development of a new seamless, high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) of the Bay – Delta that can be used by modelers attempting to understand potential future changes to the estua
Authors
Theresa A. Fregoso, Rueen-Fang Wang, Eli Ateljevich, Bruce E. Jaffe
Marine ferromanganese encrustations: Archives of changing oceans
Marine iron–manganese oxide coatings occur in many shallow and deep-water areas of the global ocean and can form in three ways: 1) Fe–Mn crusts can precipitate from seawater onto rocks on seamounts; 2) Fe–Mn nodules can form on the sediment surface around a nucleus by diagenetic processes in sediment pore water; 3) encrustations can precipitate from hydrothermal fluids. These oxide coatings have b
Authors
Andrea Koschinsky, James R. Hein
Coastal circulation and water-column properties in the National Park of American Samoa, February–July 2015
There is little information on the oceanography in the National Park of American Samoa (NPSA). The transport pathways for potentially harmful constituents of land-derived runoff, as well as larvae and other planktonic organisms, are driven by nearshore circulation patterns. To evaluate the processes affecting coral reef ecosystem health, it is first necessary to understand the oceanographic proces
Authors
Curt D. Storlazzi, Olivia Cheriton, Kurt J. Rosenberger, Joshua B. Logan, Timothy B. Clark
Doubling of coastal flooding frequency within decades due to sea-level rise
Global climate change drives sea-level rise, increasing the frequency of coastal flooding. In most coastal regions, the amount of sea-level rise occurring over years to decades is significantly smaller than normal ocean-level fluctuations caused by tides, waves, and storm surge. However, even gradual sea-level rise can rapidly increase the frequency and severity of coastal flooding. So far, global
Authors
Sean Vitousek, Patrick L. Barnard, Charles H. Fletcher, Neil Frazer, Li H. Erikson, Curt D. Storlazzi
Can beaches survive climate change?
Anthropogenic climate change is driving sea level rise, leading to numerous impacts on the coastal zone, such as increased coastal flooding, beach erosion, cliff failure, saltwater intrusion in aquifers, and groundwater inundation. Many beaches around the world are currently experiencing chronic erosion as a result of gradual, present-day rates of sea level rise (about 3 mm/year) and human-driven
Authors
Sean Vitousek, Patrick L. Barnard, Patrick W. Limber
Formation of Fe-Mn crusts within a continental margin environment
This study examines Fe-Mn crusts that form on seamounts along the California continental-margin (CCM), within the United States 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. The study area extends from approximately 30° to 38° North latitudes and from 117° to 126° West longitudes. The area of study is a tectonically active northeast Pacific plate boundary region and is also part of the North Pacific
Authors
Tracey A. Conrad, James R. Hein, Adina Paytan, David A. Clague
Oregon OCS seafloor mapping: Selected lease blocks relevant to renewable energy
In 2014 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) entered into Intra-agency agreement M13PG00037 to map an area of the Oregon Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off of Coos Bay, Oregon, under consideration for development of a floating wind energy farm. The BOEM requires seafloor mapping and site characterization studies in order to evaluate the impact of seaflo
Authors
Guy R. Cochrane, Lenaïg G. Hemery, Sarah K. Henkel
A foundation for future assessment and management of groundwater resources
Sequence stratigraphic models for the Pleistocene to Holocene sediments of the Los Angeles (LA) Basin will provide better understanding of
regional groundwater flow and have helped identify seawater intrusion pathways into important groundwater aquifers. Because groundwater
provides more than one-third of the municipal water supply for the coastal LA Basin, the aquifer architecture of this system
Authors
Kenneth D. Ehman, Brian D. Edwards
The California Seafloor and Coastal Mapping Program – Providing science and geospatial data for California's State Waters
The California Seafloor and Coastal Mapping Program (CSCMP) is a collaborative effort to develop comprehensive bathymetric, geologic, and habitat maps and data for California's State Waters. CSCMP began in 2007 when the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) allocated funding for high-resolution bathymetric mapping, largely to suppo
Authors
Samuel Y. Johnson, Guy R. Cochrane, Nadine E. Golden, Peter Dartnell, Stephen Hartwell, Susan A. Cochran, Janet Watt