Sound Waves Newsletter - December 2009
Scientists Cruise Deep into Coral Ecosystems
Several U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are co-leading a team of researchers from around the United States and Europe seeking to characterize deep-coral ecosystems and the abundance of organisms that live in and around them.
Ground-Truthing Data for Mapping of Seafloor Habitat and Geology along the California Coast
The California Seafloor Mapping Program is a State and Federally funded program to create a series of geologic and seafloor-habitat basemaps for all of California's State waters (from the shore out 3 nautical miles).
Belize Fieldwork Shows How Oceanic Mangrove Islands Kept Up With Sea-Level Rise for 8,000 Years
Fieldwork off the coast of Belize in Central America is revealing how coastal tropical forests composed of mangroves have kept up with sea-level rise over the Holocene Epoch.
Surprises from the Deadly September 29, 2009, Samoa Tsunami
Samoa Disaster Highlights Danger of Tsunamis Generated from Outer-Rise Earthquakes
Unlike typical tsunamigenic earthquakes that occur on the thrust fault that separates tectonic plates in a subduction zone (termed the interplate thrust), outer-rise earthquakes occur within the subducting or downgoing plate before it enters the subduction zone.
Saving Sand: South Carolina Beaches Become a Model for Preservation
The main objective of this 7-year study, done in cooperation with the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, was to improve projections of coastal change by determining the geologic features and ocean processes that control sediment movement along the coast.
Flat Isabel Goes on a Research Cruise
Flat Isabel is a friend of Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley is the title character of a children's book and has become the basis of a popular school project that promotes literacy, writing skills, and "connectivity" between students and new people, places, and activities. Dale Hubert, a grade-school teacher in Canada, started the Flat Stanley Project in 1995.
USGS Employees in Louisiana Garner Awards
Several employees at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)'s National Wetlands Research Center and the USGS Lafayette Publishing Service Center have recently received national, regional, and local awards recognizing their contributions.
New Director of USGS Woods Hole Science Center
Walter Barnhardt has become the new director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Recent Publications - December 2009
List of recent USGS publications based on coastal and marine research.